Faster vaccination in China a boost to Asian recovery: media

The pace of recovery in Asia and global emerging markets is expected to improve as the rate of COVID-19 vaccination has been accelerating in China, the Wall Street Journal reported on May 28.

The vaccination volume in China accounted for around half of the volume distributed daily around the world. According to China's National Health Commission, over 639 million doses of the vaccines have been administered across the country as of May 30.

"Faster Chinese vaccination could accelerate the return of sorely needed tourism to the battered economies of Southeast Asia," said the Wall Street Journal.

Currently, the WHO validated two COVID-19 vaccines from Chinese pharmaceutical companies for emergency use -- one from Sinopharm, and one from Sinovac.

The Wall Street Journal said that concerns about the efficacy of Chinese vaccines were probably misplaced, and quoted trial data from the World Health Organization as saying that Sinopharm's vaccine is 70 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.

According to the Chilean government, the vaccine from Sinovac has an efficacy of 67 percent in preventing symptomatic disease, and is up to 85 percent effective in preventing hospitalization, 89 percent effective in preventing admission to an intensive care unit, and 80 percent effective in preventing death caused by the virus.