While a lot has been said and written about the first Covid-19 inoculations in the UK with the Pfizer/BioNTec vaccine, China has already distributed millions of doses to other countries. Indonesia received its first shipment of 1.2 million doses of CoronaVac from China  to prepare for a mass inoculation program. The Indonesian government plans to bring in 15 million more doses of semi-finished vaccine products this month, while as many as 30 million semi-finished doses are expected to arrive in January to handle the pandemic, which has killed more than 17,740 in Indonesia, said President Joko Widodo. The proportionally diluted vaccine concentrates will be further processed by Indonesian state-owned vaccine producer Bio Farma to package it in bottles or syringes. 

Brazil’s most populated state Sao Paulo received the first batch of 120,000 CoronaVac doses in November and 600 liters of vaccine concentrate recently, making Brazil the first country in Latin America to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus, while Turkey’s Health Minister announced an immunization plan using a Chinese-developed Covid-19 vaccine later this month. Fahrettin Koca said the country had signed a contract to buy 50 million doses of vaccine from China’s Sinovac. 

Jiang Chunlai from Jilin University’s School of Life Sciences told the Global Times that compared with the mRNA vaccine widely used by Western pharmaceutical companies, China’s traditional inactivated vaccine is technologically mature, and triggers less adverse reactions. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna products are both made using a revolutionary genetic technique, but need to be stored at very low temperatures – minus 70º and minus 20ºC respectively – which poses serious barriers to logistics in some underdeveloped countries. 

In response to questions as to why China has not presented their trial data, Jiang said that Pfizer and Moderna conducted trials in countries where the virus is rife, which helps them gather efficient data on short notice. China only has a few cases, and countries like Brazil and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also have fewer cases than the U.S. and Europe, said Jiang. Sinovac announced that it has received about USD500 million from Sino Biopharmaceutical for the further development and expansion of manufacturing capacity. Current production volume is 300 million doses by  year end. 

Another leading producer, Sinopharm, told the Global Times that it keeps improving its late-stage data against the clock at the request of the Chinese regulator. Its vaccine was 86% effective against the corona-virus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Health Ministry said, citing an interim analysis of in-country late-stage clinical trials. The UAE has officially approved and registered the vaccine. Sinopharm has already carried out a China-wide logistics exercise to ensure safe and efficient vaccine distribution, with experts predicting that the vaccine is very likely to be licensed and available in the market by the end of December. Six Chinese-developed vaccines were in late-stage clinical trials, among which four were inactivated vaccines.

An increasing number of residents of Hong Kong are crossing over to mainland China at the Shenzhen Bay checkpoint amid the fourth wave in Hong Kong. They are facing a 14-day quarantine in designated hotels before being allowed to travel onwards. Most hotels are already operating at full capacity. The fourth wave, which saw a peak around November 23, is in a slow downward trend, but the R0 number in the city currently remains at around 1. 

Chengdu, in Sichuan province, has entered “wartime mode” after 12 domestic Covid-19 cases were found in a week, with authorities racing against time to track the patients’ close contacts scattered across the city. Experts say there is a high possibility that the Chengdu outbreak can be traced back to imported cases or goods. It is the first time that Chengdu has seen Covid-19 infections since March. After the outbreak, Chengdu urgently carried out nucleic acid tests of over one million people. 

Two border cities in Heilongjiang province also reported new cases. To prevent a relapse of the Covid-19 epidemic, several cities in Heilongjiang will start school winter vacations earlier than scheduled. Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia currently has 27 confirmed cases. 

The city of Hefei is taking strict measures regarding its imported cold-chain market, requiring identity information from buyers of these products, but the new policy will have a limited effect because many vendors have suspended such business. The city is also implementing  strict disinfection and multiple certification requirements. Hefei’s largest wholesale farmers’ market, Baida Zhougudui, stopped selling imported frozen food last month, and a Carrefour mall also stopped selling such products. More than 40 imported cold food chain products testing positive have been reported in at least 16 provinces and regions. Four certificates are mandatory before an imported cold-chain product can go to market: a traceability certificate, certificate of entry inspection and quarantine, nucleic acid testing certificate, and disinfection certificate. 

According to the latest reports, Covid-19 outbreaks with unknown sources of infection are taking place in at least five Chinese cities – Dongning and Suifenhe in Heilongjiang province, Manzhouli in Inner Mongolia, Turpan in Xinjiang, and Chengdu in Sichuan province. To fight the virus, the cities have all rolled out massive nucleic acid testing programs and three have entered quasi-lockdown mode.

This overview is based on reports by the South China Morning Post, Global Times, China Daily and Shanghai Daily. 

China will have 600 million doses of Covid-19 inactivated vaccines ready this year and will make “a major announcement” in the coming one to two weeks, Wang Junzhi, Deputy Director of an expert task force on vaccine development said at a briefing in Wuhan. “It’s at the final stage now,” Wang added. Inactivated vaccines use a conventional technique that involves killing off the virus in a lab and using it to trigger an immune response. Two such vaccines developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG) and a third by Sinovac Biotech are in the final stage of clinical trials in South America, the Middle East and Asia, but the drug makers have yet to release phase-3 data needed for full regulatory approval. The companies have already built the required high-level biosafety and production facilities. Sinovac has already shipped more than 1.12 million doses of its vaccine to Brazil, where it is conducting a phase-3 trial.

Wang did not give details of the 600 million doses, but previous media reports have said the two facilities under CNBG could supply 100 million doses this year with potential for 300 million by expanding existing capacity. Sinovac could also supply 100 million doses of its vaccine this year. Two other vaccines developed in China – by CanSino and Anhui Zhifei Longcom Biopharmaceutical – are also in the final stage of human trials and the companies have said they could produce 100 million to 300 million doses this year, depending on demand.

The CNBG and Sinovac vaccines were authorized for emergency use at the end of July, and have already been given to about one million Chinese deemed high-risk. Several provinces have started the procurement process for these vaccines, including Zhejiang, Sichuan and Jiangsu. Britain has already approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and vaccinations will start this week. It is expected to be approved this week in the United States and Europe. Pfizer aims to provide 50 million doses globally this year. Moderna meanwhile said it expected to have between 100 million and 125 million doses of its experimental vaccine available globally in the first quarter of 2021.

Wang’s remarks came after Vice Premier Sun Chunlan, who is in charge of health in China, visited a vaccine maker under CNBG, as well as Sinovac, and the national agency that oversees vaccines in Beijing. She told the drug makers they should “scientifically and rigorously” advance their phase-3 trials and be prepared for mass production of the vaccines. She said vaccination of all high-risk groups should be completed by the end of the year. CNBG phase-3 data could be released “soon”, its parent company China National Pharmaceutical Group said, while Sinovac is also expected to make an announcement on its phase-3 trial imminently, the South China Morning Post reports.

U.S.-based Delta Airlines has officially resumed direct flights between China and the U.S., instead of including a stopover in South Korea, making Delta the only American carrier to operate non-stop flights between the two countries, linking Shanghai to Seattle and Detroit twice per week. The flights will provide the highest level of disinfection and cleaning standards for a more convenient and comfortable air travel experience, said Wong Hong, President of Greater China and Singapore for Delta. Delta suspended flights between the U.S. and China in February due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it resumed flights in June and July, with a stop in Seoul. Two other U.S.-based carriers – American and United – still include a stop in South Korea.

A China-Japan “fast track” for personnel exchanges is expected to facilitate travel between the two countries. Chinese nationals who intend to visit Japan for short-term business purposes, or medium- to long-stay purposes, became eligible to apply for the “business track” and “residence track” last week. Those who apply for the business track must still present an invitation letter and submit a negative Covid-19 test conducted within 72 hours before their arrival in Japan. Travelers eligible for the business track are also required to stay within a limited range during the 14-day quarantine, according to a notice issued by the Consulate-General of Japan in Shanghai. Four nations – China, Singapore, Vietnam and South Korea – are eligible for the track.

China’s economic rebound gained momentum last month as official purchasing managers indexes for the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors both reached their highest level so far this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. The PMI increased to 52.1 in November versus 51.4 a month earlier. The non-manufacturing PMI edged up to 56.4 in November compared with 56.2 in October, as market demand in the services sector recovered while construction activity sped up. The BOC Research Institute expects China’s GDP to grow by around 7.5% on a yearly basis in 2021, up from around 2.1% expected this year.

This overview is based on reports by the South China Morning Post, Global Times, China Daily and Shanghai Daily. 

All international freight by air, land and sea resembles cold-chain logistics as winter approaches, which means they could become carriers of Covid-19, Wu Zunyou, Chief Epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, warned. Meanwhile, the largest marine products market in Beijing has strengthened management to prevent infections. The virus thrives in low temperature environments, and the lower the temperature, the longer the virus will be active, Wu told the Global Times. The risk of infection through contaminated packages arriving from overseas increases significantly, Wu said, noting that daily new cases around the world have surpassed 600,000 in November. Wu’s statement came after UPS and FedEx employees at Shanghai Pudong International Airport tested positive for Covid-19, after the airport initiated nucleic acid testing for all staff.

Sun Xiaodong, Deputy Director of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a press conference that the confirmed local cases reported on November 9 and 10 had been exposed to one contaminated air cargo container. These sporadic cases related to imported cargo show that the risk of Covid-19 entering China remains, and China will face severe challenges domestically in winter. Facing increasing infection risks brought about by cold-chain deliveries, some Chinese provinces and cities, including Shandong, Gansu, Nanjing and Wuhan have announced the building of centralized supervision centers for frozen products to be disinfected, and to conduct Covid-19 nucleic acid tests before allowing them to enter the local market. Shandong ordered every city in the province to build a large warehouse to test and disinfect imported frozen food by December 10. Seafood companies and markets are also enhancing management to prevent infections. Eason Li, China General Manager at Norwegian seafood processor Hofseth International, told the Global Times that they had raised the safety level during processing to prevent infections, and would try their best to seal the products well to prevent infections during delivery. 

Beijing’s Jingshen seafood market, the largest marine products distribution center, is no longer open to individual consumers, and strictly manages personnel passing in and out to prevent people from gathering at the market. Individual consumers can only shop online. They can collect the products at a designated place at the market gate, or receive the products via courier. Chinese Customs on November 14 said that they had held talks with all 109 countries and regions that export cold-chain food to China, and would suspend imports from companies in these countries suffering from virus infections among its staff. However, no Covid-19 infections caused by direct consumption of contaminated cold chain foods have been found so far.

One of China’s distinct solutions to combat the Covid-19 pandemic is setting up an international QR health code. Observers said the QR code might get a trial first in China’s neighboring countries that will have “green lanes” for travel with China, to build up trust in the system and dissipate concerns over user privacy and data security. Chinese President Xi Jinping called for the establishment of an international mechanism involving the mutual recognition of health codes, and he welcomed participation by more countries. The mechanism should be based on nucleic acid test results and use universally recognized QR codes, President Xi said via videolink at the 15^th G20 Leaders’ Summit. “At present, the establishment of an international mechanism of mutual recognition of health codes is in the early stage, and the next step will focus on the mutual recognition of the mechanism among different countries, information protection and data applications,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian added. 

In China, health codes are enabled via Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat mini-programs, requesting subscribers to fill in personal information such as ID numbers, mobile phone numbers and home addresses for a colored QR code to be generated. Like traffic lights, the green code is an indication of safety while a yellow or red code would mean mandatory quarantine, because the individual may have been in contact with a Covid-19 case. People in China need to show a green code before entering supermarkets, hotels, parks and restaurants. The QR health code is not yet available on a national level, as provinces and cities in China have their own codes. A study by Oxford University released in April found that if 56% of a country’s population used a tracking app, the coronavirus epidemic could be suppressed completely. There are no technical barriers to the creation of a mutually recognized health code mechanism, experts said. “The proposed mechanism is the only conduit to restart the international aviation market, which is expected to come before the availability of coronavirus vaccines,” Qi Qi, an aviation market watcher, told the Global Times.

The Chinese mainland reported 98 locally transmitted Covid-19 cases over the past 30 days, 7.5 times as many as reported in the previous 30 days. 

This overview is based on reports by The Global Times, China Daily and Shanghai Daily. 

Vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech plan to roll out the first doses of their Covid-19 vaccine within weeks, once they receive emergency use permissions from regulators. They expect to have 1.3 billion doses ready next year. Pfizer and BioNTech could secure emergency U.S. and European authorization for using their Covid-19 vaccine next month. Of the 170 volunteers who contracted Covid-19 in Pfizer’s trial involving over 43,000 people, 162 had received a placebo and not the vaccine, meaning the vaccine was 95% effective. Conditional approval in the European Union could be secured in the second half of December, while deliveries could start before Christmas. AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s potential Covid-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response in older adults, data showed, with researchers expecting to release late-stage trial results by Christmas.

But despite these two announcements, Chinese vaccine makers said that China’s development of Covid-19 vaccines remains in the lead. China’s leading vaccine producer Sinopharm told the Global Times that it has reported the phase-III clinical data to China’s relevant regulators. The vaccine maker, claiming it is in the final stage before marketing, stressed that it is not under pressure to reveal its vaccine data and will do so in a more scientific and controlled way. Another leading inactivated vaccine producer, Sinovac, said that it will not release the relevant data until it is assured to obtain sufficient Covid-19 cases in its double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to certify vaccine effectiveness. The release is expected by the end of November. Five Chinese vaccine candidates are under clinical phase-III trials in countries including the UAE, Brazil, Pakistan and Peru, and phase-I and II clinical trials of other candidates have been accelerated. Sinopharm’s two inactivated vaccines have been administered to nearly one million people for emergency use and no serious adverse reactions have been reported. Nearly 60,000 volunteers have participated in the phase-III clinical trials in more than 10 countries.

How to ensure transportation of Covid-19 vaccines has become a hot topic for the global cargo industry. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said that delivering billions of doses of a vaccine that must be transported and stored in a deep-frozen state to the entire world efficiently will involve hugely complex logistical challenges across the supply chain. Market watchers believe that the prospect of vaccine transportation may stimulate the recovery of the aviation market, especially the cargo industry. Cai Guoxian, regional head of North Asia with the IATA, said at an industry forum held in Zhengzhou, Henan province, that assuming one dose per person in the world, billions of doses of vaccine would need to be transported, requiring 8,000 Boeing 747 freighters, which will lend strong support to the cargo industry.

Small local outbreaks are emerging in several Chinese cities. Shanghai reported five new confirmed locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and three communities in the Pudong New Area where the patients live have been designated as medium-risk areas. A cargo security inspector at Pudong International Airport and his wife, a nurse at Pudong Hospital, were confirmed as two new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and three people were found infected during the follow-up contact tracing. Shanghai Pudong Hospital has suspended its daily outpatient and emergency services. A total of 4,015 medical staff, workers and patients have been quarantined in the hospital. People in the medium-risk areas are not allowed to leave Shanghai unless in an emergency. The first of Shanghai’s latest coronavirus infections emerged in two airport cargo handlers who cleaned a container that arrived on a flight from North America. The container was damp inside and sealed off. Airport officials have tested 17,719 employees at Pudong airport’s cargo handling area. A tests turned out negative, but a FedEx (China) employee was confirmed as a new Covid-19 cases on November 23. Since November 9, six freight transport workers at the airport have been confirmed positive for Covid-19. The wives of two of the staffers are also confirmed as infected. The confirmed cases have only been found at the airport’s cargo handling area, and the airport’s passenger area is unaffected.

Five new locally transmitted cases were also confirmed in Tianjin. Authorities started conducting nucleic acid tests for 2.24 million residents in the Binhai New Area, to be completed in two to three days. Two cold-chain storage workers were among the infected, as the country shifts focus to contaminated imports after a number of outbreaks linked to frozen food. Around 1,900 residents are under centralized quarantine. As of November 20, Tianjin had reported seven confirmed cases of Covid-19 and five asymptomatic cases. Two cities in Fujian province said they found traces of the virus in shipments of pomfret fish from India and beef from Argentina. Three new locally transmitted cases were reported in Manzhouli, a city in Inner Mongolia bordering Russia’s Far East. All 300,000 residents of the city have been tested.

In Wuhan, authorities said earlier they had detected the virus on frozen beef from Brazil, while several other cities reported positive test results on samples from imported food, including Argentinian pork and Indian cuttlefish. Customs officials have temporarily suspended imports from some suppliers. Mass-testing campaigns have been rolled out after reports of coronavirus traces on imported food and packaging, with state TV showing workers disinfecting transport trucks and inspecting packages of frozen salmon. Wu Zunyou, Chief Epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times that low temperatures in winter make the international freight environment similar to a cold chain, creating a “cold chain” effect on all imported goods.

Air France’s flight from Paris to Shanghai has been suspended by China’s civil aviation regulator for a week from November 23. Flight AF198 was suspended after six passengers on a flight from Paris tested positive for Covid-19 on November 6, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. The weekly flight was one of the earliest international flights to Shanghai to resume after the coronavirus outbreak.

Addressing the Group of 20 Riyadh Summit via video link, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed building a “global firewall” against Covid-19, reducing tariffs and barriers as well as tapping into the booming digital economy to battle the pandemic and reboot the world economy. “To contain the virus, stabilize the economy and protect livelihood remains a long and arduous journey for all countries,” Xi said.

This overview is based on reports by The Global Times, China Daily, Shanghai Daily and The Guardian.

Health authorities in several cities with new local Covid-19 infections urged residents to stay vigilant and reiterated the use of personal hygiene and protection measures, including wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and paying attention to food safety. In recent days, three new confirmed cases have been reported – in Tianjin, Shanghai and Fuyang, Anhui province. In Tianjin, large-scale nucleic acid testing was conducted on 77,000 residents of the Hangu subdistrict and two blocks neighboring a cold-chain logistics area at the central fishing port in the city’s Binhai New Area.

The areas were classified as medium-risk for Covid-19 after a 38-year-old man, who works at a loading dock of a cold storage company, tested positive, becoming a confirmed Covid-19 patient. Officials urged residents in medium-risk areas not to leave their communities. The coronavirus found to have infected the Tianjin patient was very similar to the strain that spread in North America between March and June, local government officials said. The man tested positive after he handled a shipment of frozen pork. Samples of the outer packaging of the pork, which arrived in Tianjin on October 19 from Germany, tested positive for coronavirus. Tianjin also reported an asymptomatic case – a 48-year-old man who is a stevedore at Tianjin Dongjiang Free Trade Port Zone in the Binhai New Area. A second man, 47, a driver who went to the facilities where the confirmed patient worked and who loaded frozen food, was reported as an asymptomatic case. In Yunnan province, the Gengma autonomous county reported two new asymptomatic Covid-19 infections in individuals from Myanmar. Residents in three communities were required to complete 14 days of home quarantine and schools were suspended.

Shanghai’s government said that all 8,717 people in the city with ties to a confirmed local Covid-19 patient – a 51-year-old man who works as a cargo handler at Shanghai Pudong International Airport – had tested negative for the virus. Twenty-six people who had close contact with the confirmed patient and 186 people who interacted with those individuals have also been quarantined at designated hotels, according to the authorities. A confirmed Covid-19 case, a close contact of the Shanghai patient, was reported in Fuyang, Anhui province. The 50-year-old man also worked as a stevedore at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the China Daily reports. An increasing number of Shanghai residents are taking tests for coronavirus at designated hospitals before traveling to other cities where negative results may be required.

It is estimated that there have been at least 30 coronavirus cases detected in China in imported food cold chains since the first case in July. Up to now, more than 873,500 samples had been tested by Customs across China, among which 13 had positive nucleic acid test results, media reported. China also has reported more than 3,600 imported cases, and the number has increased rapidly since October. The current daily average of imported cases is 16.6, up 45% since September. China has stopped issuing visas to some foreign nationals while restricting non urgent outbound travel by Chinese citizens, Yin Chengji, Deputy Director of the National Immigration Administration (NIA), told reporters.

China remains vigilant, as more cases may emerge in winter. There might be sporadic cases in some areas in China and some pocket cluster cases in others, Li Bin, Vice Chairman of the National Health Commission, said. “China’s epidemic prevention and control work cannot be relaxed for a single moment,” he added. The country has also done random checks on more than 870,000 samples of imported frozen food, said Bi Kexin, an official at the General Administration of Customs. It is demanding certification from suppliers, and market regulators are taking tougher measures against untraceable frozen food, said Chen Xu, an official at the State Administration for Market Regulation. Chinese respiratory disease expert Zhong Nanshan called for sustained international collaboration in the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic and greater attention to asymptomatic cases, citing relatively strong infectivity.

Brazil resumed the trials of a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine after halting them briefly following the death of a participant in the trial, which was later classified as a possible suicide and thus not related to the vaccine test. The vaccine candidate tested in Brazil is developed by the Chinese firm Sinovac Biotech (Sinovac). A scheduled shipment of Sinovac’s vaccine to Brazil of about 150,000 to 160,000 doses at the end of the month is still being processed. Joao Doria, the Governor of Sao Paulo state where the vaccine is being tested, called the suspension of the study the result of a “domestic political war” with President Jair Bolsonaro, who had previously declared that Brazil would not buy Chinese vaccines.