"China's State Food and Drug Administration has approved the application for registration of the inactivated vaccine against coronavirus infection developed by Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Biotechnology. The vaccine is suitable for the prevention of COVID-19", the statement said.
The Sinovac vaccine can now be administered to all groups of the population. Previously it was allowed only for emergency vaccination of key groups, including doctors, transport workers, and law enforcement officers.
Sinovac started developing its vaccine back in January 2020, immediately after the outbreak of then-unknown pneumonia disease, which was later officially confirmed in the Chinese city of Wuhan and named COVID-19. The vaccine has been approved for Phase III clinical trials in Brazil, Indonesia, Turkey and Chile, while the Phase I and II trials' results in China have shown that the vaccine is capable of inducing antibodies in over 90 percent of volunteers who received two doses.