China’s Sinopharm offers ‘substantial support’ for COVAX, WHO says

FILE PHOTO: A healthcare worker handles China’s Sinopharm coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines at a sports center, as the country continues its mass inoculation campaign, in Stip, North Macedonia May 6, 2021. REUTERS/Ognen Teofilovski

GENEVA — China’s Sinopharm state company has offered substantial support for the COVAX program to provide COVID-19 vaccines mainly to poor countries, a WHO official said on Friday after the global health body gave emergency approval to Sinopharm’s vaccine.

Senior WHO adviser Bruce Aylward said it would be up to Sinopharm to say how many doses of its vaccine it can provide to the program, but added: “They are looking at trying to provide substantial support, make substantial doses available while at the same time of course trying to serve China’s population.”