SHANGHAI: China's first local COVID-19 case since February had received the two shots of a vaccine between January-end and early February, reported Reuters on Saturday.
The patient, Liu, had been working in the quarantine area of a hospital in Xian city since March 4. She was mainly responsible for collecting samples of people who were in quarantine for coronavirus testing.
China had reported the case on Thursday, making it the country's first locally transmitted case since February 14.
Allegedly, Liu was infected after being accidentally exposed in the hospital's quarantine area, said The Health Times, citing a joint expert group of Shaanxi province.
According to the publication, who quoted Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist of China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the protection rate of the coronavirus vaccine is 'not 100%'. It is 'relatively safe', though this should not be a reason for the public to doubt domestic vaccines.
"The efficacy rate of domestic vaccines in preventing severe cases in China is more than 90%, and the overall protection rate is more than 70%," said Zeng.
He added that COVID-19 treatment hospitals are high-risk areas, even medical staff who are vaccinated cannot rule out the possibility of being infected.
Currently China has four domestic COVID-19 vaccines for public use - CanSinoBIO by CanSino Biologics Inc, Sinopharm by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, an affiliate of China National Pharmaceutical Group, Sinovac Biotech, and another from Sinopharm's Beijing.