China's TravelSky Technology advises employees to take Sinopharm vaccine - Global Times

TravelSky Technology

17/06/2020 11:49

BEIJING, June 17 (Reuters) - Beijing-based TravelSky
Technology Ltd  0696.HK  is advising its employees to take a
candidate vaccine being developed by China National
Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) amid the capital's latest
COVID-19 flare-up, state newspaper Global Times reported. 
    No vaccine has yet been proven to effectively protect people
from the disease caused by the novel coronavirus that has killed
more than 400,000 people globally, but multiple candidates are
in development.
    TravelSky Technology, controlled by state-owned China
TravelSky Holding Company, is the country's dominant provider of
information technology to the air travel and tourism industries.
    The company did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests
for comment. 
    Global Times reported last week that China is offering
candidate vaccines to employees at state-owned firms travelling
overseas as it seeks more data on their efficacy.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2DO2D8 
    Before regulatory approval a vaccine normally has to go
through large-scale trials to observe to what extent they
provide protection from infection. That ideally requires
exposing people in a real-life environment.
    Beijing has reported a total of 137 locally transmitted
cases over the past few days, all of which traced back to a mega
wholesale food market in the city, reinforcing concerns about
second-wave infections. 
    Authorities has stepped up coronavirus-related restrictions
to curb the movement of people out of the capital and locked
down dozens of residential communities. 

 (Reporting by Stella Qiu, Roxanne Liu and Brenda Goh; Editing
by Jan Harvey)
 ((yifan.qiu@thomsonreuters.com; 86-10-66271289;))