China's CoronaVac vaccine gives over 90% protection from ICU admission in Chile: study

SANTIAGO - China's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine effectively prevented COVID-19 in Chile, with the adjusted vaccine effectiveness reaching 90.3 percent for the prevention of severe disease, according to a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A nationwide mass vaccination campaign was conducted from Feb. 2 to May 1, and a cohort including approximately 10.2 million people aged 16 years and above was used, according to the study titled Effectiveness of an Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine in Chile published on Wednesday.

Among those who were fully immunized, the adjusted vaccine effectiveness was 65.9 percent for the prevention of COVID-19, 87.5 percent for the prevention of hospitalization, and 86.3 percent for the prevention of COVID-19-related death, the results of the study showed.

The CoronaVac, also known as the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, is an inactivated virus COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech.

CoronaVac uses an inactivated whole virus, compelling a recipient's immune system to attack the harmless form of the virus by producing antibodies to fight it off, thus leading to immunity.