China’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine developed by CanSinoBIO will now be available at 11 Chinese ports, aiming to provide a convenient vaccination solution to Chinese seafarers.
The CanSinoBIO vaccine is Approved by China’s National Medical Products Administration, and has been developed by a research team led by Chen Wei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences.
This vaccine has already been applied in several Chinese cities, while in order to advance the vaccination of Chinese seafarers, the China Shipowner’s Association is applying to receive permission for one-shot vaccine.
This vaccine will be available at the following 11 ports:
- Dalian
- Tianjin
- Qingdao
- Lianyungang
- Shanghai
- Ningbo
- Xiamen
- Beibu Gulf
- Shenzhen
- Guangzhou
- Hainan’s Yangpu.
Until now, Chinese seafarers have been provided with the double-dose Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccinesr.
Giving priority for vaccination for seafarers is a major issue for the industry and the ship manager’s association has made a deal to buy 1 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot vaccine for seafarers worldwide, but is still seeking a government body it can use as a conduit for the deal.
However, frustrated by the lack of progress and slow pace of international efforts, InterManager had vowed to work separately to obtain much-needed Covid-19 vaccines to protect the world’s seafarers.
For this reason, it managed to agree with Johnson & Johnson for 1m one-shot Covid-19 vaccine doses for seafarers.
However, in order to receive the vaccines, InterManager must to work with a recognised governmental body, as the international law states. Nevertheless, InterManager’s attempts have not been successful so far.
Commenting on this development, Mr. O’Neil expressed his frustration, saying that he cannot understand why there is not ”a single government body to authorise this.” For this reason, he also urged all shipmanagers to use their contacts to find a suitable government body.
Mr. O’Neil also added that if this opportunity is missed then there is the possibility ”some vessels to come to a grinding halt because we don’t have vaccinated seafarers.”
