SOUTH African regulators have approved Sinovac Biotech’s coronavirus vaccine, the first shot developed for the disease by a Chinese company to be sanctioned locally.
The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority backed the double-dose CoronaVac candidate made by Sinovac’s Life Sciences unit with conditions, according to a statement on Saturday.
Those include satisfactory results of ongoing studies and periodic safety updates, SAHPRA said.
The acceptance, which has similar terms to those given to other vaccine manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson, comes as South Africa this week opened its immunisation rollout to people aged 50 and older.
The country is facing a severe third wave as the more infectious delta variant of the disease becomes widespread and only about 6% of the national population has been vaccinated.
CoronaVac is indicated for people between the ages of 18 and 59 years and has a provisional shelf life of two years when
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