Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia has added China's Sinopharm and Sinovac coronavirus vaccines to its approved list of vaccines, reports said.

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The authorities had earlier approved Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

Reports claimed a booster dose would be required for those who had taken two doses of the Chinese vaccines.

A Hong Kong study had earlier claimed that  BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine produced ten times the number of antibodies compared to China's Sinovac.

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The study said there was growing evidence that vaccines using mRNA technology such as BioNTech and Moderna allowed better protection against the virus even as the study said booster shots may be needed as "alternative strategies".

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The researchers said giving booster shots would be the next phase of their ongoing studies. 

Thailand which has been hit hard due to the virus had earlier defended its policy of mixing vaccines after the first dose of the Sinovac jab. The vaccine dose was mixed with the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Several healthcare workers in Thailand were hit with the virus even as they were given the Sinovac vaccine dose earlier. The authorities later decided to give people AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech booster doses.

Indonesia which had become the epicentre of the virus in Asia after a surge in coronavirus cases had decided to give a third booster jab to health workers after several fully vaccinated medical staff employees died from the virus. The country had inoculated Sinovac jabs during its vaccine roll-out.

Indonesia's health minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin had said the authorities will provide 1.47 million health workers with an extra jab of the Moderna vaccine since they were exposed to high levels of the virus every day.

According to Moderna, its vaccine is 90 per cent effective against all forms of the virus and 95 per cent effective against severe disease.

China had declared earlier that it had exported 450 million vaccine doses worldwide however several countries have now ordered a booster dose as Chinese-made vaccines have come under scrutiny.

(With inputs from Agencies)