Some employees of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) preparing to go abroad were offered Sinopharm's inactivated vaccine for urgent use as early as June, the Global Times learned previously.

Chinese people can also get a vaccine for free if the vaccine is included in the national immunization program, which covers 14 injections against 15 diseases like polio and hepatitis B, according to Chinese health authorities. 

Two inactivated vaccine candidates developed by institutes under Sinopharm separately in Beijing and Wuhan were delivered into phase III clinical trials in the United Arab Emirates in June. 

Liu himself has also been injected with two shots of one of the inactivated candidates. So far, he said he felt "no side effects."

A workshop in Beijing able to produce 120 million doses per year has passed biological safety inspection from the related authorities and is ready for production. Another workshop of Sinopharm in Wuhan is able to produce 100 million doses per year, Liu noted.

Editor | Vicki Song

Source | Global Times