China is preparing to vaccinate children from the age of three against the coronavirus, thus becoming the first country in the world to immunize the youngest, a pharmaceutical laboratory announced on Tuesday.
The Asian giant, where COVID-19 appeared at the end of 2019, has already administered almost 800 million doses, so far only to those over 18 years of age.
Beijing, which practically eradicated the epidemic in its territory since May 2020, hopes to be able to vaccinate at least 70% of its population by the end of the year, that is, 1 billion inhabitants.
A spokesman for the Sinovac laboratory, which produces one of the three authorized injectables in the country, told AFP that its Coronavac immunizer could be distributed to minors.
"[The use of] the Sinovac vaccine was approved in recent days for ages 3 to 17," he told AFP, without specifying when the first doses would be administered.
The pharmaceutical company completed its clinical trials in children and adolescents, the results of which should be published by the British journal The Lancet , he added.
In addition to Sinovac (two doses), China approved the use of Sinopharm (two) and Cansino Biologics (one) products. The drugs in the first two also received approval from the World Health Organization (WHO) for use in adults.
In other parts of the world, the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States and Uruguay have approved the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine from the age of 12.
