It marks the second Covid-19 vaccine greenlighted for public use in China, after a shot developed by a Beijing institute affiliated to state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) was approved in December.

Prior to the approvals, both vaccines have already been used in China’s vaccination programme mainly targeting key groups deemed to be at higher risk of exposure to the virus.

Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay, and Laos have granted emergency authorisations for the CoronaVac vaccine developed by Sinovac Life Sciences, Sinovac said in a news release.

The approval is based on the two-month results from late-stage clinical trials overseas, from which the final analysis data has not yet been obtained, Sinovac said.