By Leonardo Benassatto
SERRANA, Brazil (Reuters) – The COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese Sinovac Biotech is effective against variants in the UK and South Africa, the Brazilian vaccine partner said on Wednesday, citing test results in Chinese trials.
“We tested this vaccine in China against the English and South African variants, with good results,” said Dimas Covas, head of the Butantan biomedical center in São Paulo that conducts domestic testing of the Chinese vaccine and is providing doses for the Health of Brazil Ministry.
Covas gave no further details on the exact effectiveness of the vaccine against these strains.
Butantan also tests the vaccine, known as CoronaVac, against the Brazilian variant of the virus that appeared in the city of Manaus, he said.
“Soon we will have the results and we are very sure that this will work,” said Covas.
Covas was speaking at a press conference in the small town of Serrana, in the interior of São Paulo, where Butantan started on Wednesday a mass vaccination campaign aimed at inoculating the entire adult population against COVID-19 to test whether the index decreases. infection.
Covas said he hopes CoronaVac will have an advantage over other vaccines because of the technology it uses – an inactivated version of a coronavirus strain.
The effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine against the Brazilian strain in particular will be vital for Brazil. The government guaranteed 100 million doses and made the vaccine a centerpiece of its inoculation campaign.
Covas’ comments came at a time when several cities in Brazil, including the capitals of the states of Rio, Salvador and Cuiabá, suspended the new vaccinations because the doses ran out.
(Reporting by Leonardo Benassatto, written by Sabrina Valle; edited by Stephen Eisenhammer and Aurora Ellis)