In a big relief for China, the WHO on Friday finally granted the conditional approval to its Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use, a move that could help Beijing step up its vaccine diplomacy amid the surge in coronavirus vaccines in several countries. China has approved about five of its vaccines for emergency use and especially using Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines for both at home and abroad.
The Sinopharm vaccine was authorised by 45 countries and jurisdictions for use in adults, with 65 million doses administered, according to official media reports. But many countries hesitated using the vaccine as it has not secured recognition from the World Health Organisation. While WHO has listed the Pfizer/BioNTech, Astrazeneca-SK Bio, Serum Institute of India, Janssen vaccines for emergency use, the Chinese vaccine got delayed recognition due to data related issues.
China was eagerly awaiting the global health body’s nod for it to aggressively push the vaccine among different…