China allows Covid-19 boosters of different technologies than primary shots

Adults injected with a vaccine developed by Sinopharm or Sinovac at least six months earlier can now receive their booster doses with vaccines using different technologies, produced by CanSino Biologics.

Beijing: China is giving COVID-19 booster vaccines using technologies different from the initial injections, in an effort to improve immunisation strategies amid concerns that its most-used jabs appeared to be weaker against variants such as Omicron.

Boosting population immunity could be crucial to preparing China to eventually reopen its borders and pivot from its "dynamic zero" strategy, which involves travel curbs and mass testing following dozens of local infections. Experts are watching whether combined Chinese doses would lead to higher effectiveness.

Adults injected with a vaccine developed by Sinopharm or Sinovac at least six months earlier can now receive their booster doses with vaccines using different technologies, produced by CanSino Biologics (CanSinoBIO) or a unit of Chongqing Zhifei Biological Products, National Health Commission official Wu Liangyou said on Saturday.

Around one-third of China`s 1.4 billion people had received boosters using vaccines of the same technologies as their primary doses as of February 7.

Data showed that boosters of either the same or different technologies as primary vaccinations can improve immunity, Wu told a news briefing. He did not contrast the two approaches.