China offers vaccines under development to Beijing workers

BEIJING: China is offering coronavirus vaccines under development to workers at state-owned companies in Beijing as the capital city experiences the nation’s worse flare-up since Wuhan.

The government had earlier offered shots developed by China National Biotec Group Co (CNBG) to staterun companies’ workers travelling overseas, Bloomberg reported last week. It’s now expanding that program to those firms’ employees living in Beijing districts currently under alert, or working in high-risk areas such as airports, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the offer hasn’t been made public.

The expanded voluntary inoculation may offer solace to workers facing growing risk as a potential second wave emerges in Beijing. It also puts to test CNBG’s experimental shots amid a global race to find a successful vaccine to the deadly pathogen.