China authorized the emergency use of its first inhaled COVID-19 vaccine, developed by CanSino Biologics pharmaceutical company, amid the recurrent outbreaks that keep the country under siege, the local press reported on Monday.

Beijing.- According to the country’s main media, the regulators only approved administrating a single dose of the vaccine as a booster for those previously immunized against the disease.

CanSino Biologics obtained the substance in conjunction with the Beijing Biotechnology Institute and it has been conducting clinical tests to confirm its safety and efficacy since March.

Its emergency use comes at a time when the COVID-19 outbreaks caused by the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus persist in China and forced more than 65 million residents in 33 cities to be locked down.

The situation led to the issue of warnings for the population in the provinces of Sichuan, Hunan, Heilongjiang, Hebei, and Shandong, as well as the municipalities of Beijing and Tianjin to avoid tourist travel during the holidays for the Mid-Autumn Festival on September 10-12, and the China National Day on October 1-7.

In general, China has so far accumulated 25,019 deaths and 6,080,405 contagions in its mainland, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan since the disease, caused by the aforementioned coronavirus, was detected in December 2019. (PL)