Chile approved emergency use of CanSino coronavirus vaccine – Telam

The approval comes in the middle of the mass vaccination plan, which began in December.

Chile’s Institute of Public Health (ISP) approved the Chinese-Canadian CanSino-Saval vaccine for emergency use in the country, adding the drug (a single dose) to the inoculation plan, which began in December and reports more than 7 million people. vaccinated to date.

This vaccine was approved with 10 votes for, two against and one abstention, and as a result, the drug joins those of Pfizer / BioNtech and Sinovac and is the third to be applied in the trans-Andean country.

The clearance comes amid the severe spike in infections, with more than 5,000 a day, which keeps the vast majority of the country in new total containment to avoid another rebound.

This vaccine is for a single application, with 28 days between application and vaccination, and according to Javier Bravo, ISP biochemist, “the point estimate of vaccine efficacy was 65.7%, above the required 50%. as a minimum at WHO ”.“

“We approved with some observations, we approve of its use from 18 to 60 years old,” Heriberto Garca, director of the FAI said at a press conference.

He indicated that “some observations will be requested from this vaccine” because “some interesting data such as the amount of immunity produced over time is lacking”.

This vaccine is for a single application, with 28 days between application and vaccination, and according to Javier Bravo, ISP biochemist, “the point estimate of vaccine efficacy was 65.7%, above the required 50%. as a minimum at WHO ”.

Bravo adds, based on the phase 3 clinical study of the vaccine, that “It is a single dose vaccine, which generates effective immunity.”

For her part, Teresa Valenzuela, doctor and member of the ISP expert committee, assured that “To achieve the current target of 80% of people vaccinated in the country, the efficacy of 65.7% of this vaccine is very good” and added that the inoculant “is tolerable and immunogenic 28 days after vaccination”.

Chile has a contract for the arrival of 1.8 million doses of this product.

This approval comes as part of the mass vaccination plan, which began in December, and continues with 7,111,354 people having received at least one dose and a total of 11,303,674 inoculations to date.

Despite the progress of the vaccination plan, the trans-Andean country is experiencing its worst moment of the pandemic, with more than 7,000 daily cases in recent days and, for the moment, recording 1,043,022 confirmed infections and 23,796 deaths from the coronavirus.

According to WHO data, Chile is the sixth country with the most confirmed cases in Latin America.