(Yicai Global) March 4 -- More than 5,000 deputies and members attending China's biggest annual political meeting have been vaccinated against Covid-19 with a product developed by Sinopharm Group which is boosting its production to unprecedented highs, according to its chief.

The high level of immunization reflects the representatives' trust in the safety and effectiveness of the inoculation, Chairman Yu Qingming said to Health Times yesterday ahead of the meeting. 

The National People's Congress has 2,980 deputies and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference 2,158 members, meaning that almost all the representatives got the vaccine. The Two Sessions will end on March 11.

Sinopharm is continuously expanding its production capacity, with its annual output expected to rise to 3 billion doses, which should make it the world's largest producer of Covid-19 jabs, said Yu.

China's drug regulator granted the country's first approval to the Shanghai-based company's Covid-19 vaccine in December 2020. Now the nation has permitted four such vaccines in total with over 52 million administered doses. After its inactivated first product, Sinopharm will soon kick off clinical trials regarding its recombinant protein Covid-19 vaccine.

Sinopharm has delivered nearly 100 million vaccine doses at home and abroad, namely some for political leaders in 15 nations, said Yu. Moreover, no serious adverse reactions have been reported.

The efficacy rate of the product is 86 percent, according to Yu. It is 99-percent certain to generate antibodies and 100-percent reliable in preventing moderate or severe Covid-19 infections based on large-scale international clinical trials approved by many governments, he added.

Some Sinopharm executives received their first doses as early as March 2020. And their antibody levels have remained high after that, according to Yu.

Sinopharm’s vaccine has been approved for marketing in five countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, China, Bolivia, and Seychelles, and has been permitted for emergency use in 40 countries and regions, Yu added.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi