The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
Preliminary studies have indicated that Chinese vaccines, which are produced using an inactive coronavirus, are effective against the Indian variant, which is considered to be highly transmissible and virulent.
Government announced on Wednesday that it had detected the new strain – the B.1.617 – associated with a “focalised outbreak in Kwekwe” linked to a traveller from India on April 29.
Chinese news agency, Xinhua, reported that Mr Shao Yiming – an expert with the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention – told a press conference in Beijing on Thursday that preliminary studies show that vaccines currently in use in the Asian country “are effective against the coronavirus variant recently detected in India”.
Once the current vaccines become ineffective against new Covid-19 strains, the inactivated vaccines developed by China will offer a quick solution as their production techniques will need no adjustment, Mr Shao said.
China, he added, is capable of putting new, effective vaccines into use if new variants render current vaccines ineffective.
Zimbabwe is currently administering the Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines that were approved by the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ).
The Ministry of Health and Child Care, however, continues to emphasise the need to observe current health protocols and guidelines such as social distancing, wearing face masks and sanitising
