Two doses of Sinovac vaccine found insufficient against coronavirus variant
The Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine will remain as part of Singapore’s national vaccination programme as a three-dose regime, inspite of recent findings by the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) and the Ministry of Health (MOH). The joint study has found that people who received two doses of the Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccine have lower protection against severe disease from the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
The study was conducted based on local data covering 1.25 million people. The institutions revealed that two doses of the Sinovac vaccine held 60% against severe disease, which is lower than that of the Pfizer-BioNTech/Comirnaty vaccine (90%) and the Moderna vaccine (97%).
“These results support the need for three doses of Sinovac-CoronaVac vaccines as a primary series to attain better protection against severe disease, defined as requiring oxygen, intensive care unit (ICU) care and death due to COVID-19,” write NCID and MOH.
From Jan 1, only those who have received three doses of the Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccines will be considered fully vaccinated.
“To maintain their fully vaccinated status from Jan 1, 2022, onwards, they are strongly encouraged to take their third dose before Dec 31, 2021, as long as their second dose had been administered three months ago,” MOH said.
Read: HKU researchers collaborating with vaccine manufacturers for new vaccine against Omicron
Category: Features, Pharmaceuticals
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