Chile gives emergency approval to CanSino vaccine

Chile approved on Wednesday the emergency use of the vaccine from the Chinese-Canadian consortium CanSino, restricting its distribution to people between 18 and 60 years of age.

The Director of the Chilean local drug regulator, Heriberto Garcia, said the age restriction is due to a lack of studies of the use of this specific vaccine model in elderly people.

Chile, which has vaccinated more than 7.1 million people, has already immunized an estimated 84% of people over 60.

President Sebastian Piñera underlined the CanSino jab requires only one shot for immunization, helping in the outreach of the health campaign.

The vaccine developed by CanSino is the fourth approved in Chile, after the vaccines from AstraZeneca, Sinovac and Pfizer.

The Chilean government negotiated the purchase of 1.8 million doses of the CanSino vaccine.

Chile has reported more than 23,000 COVID-19 deaths and is currently coping with an extensive outbreak, using most of its ICU bed spaces.