China's domestic vaccines still effective against Delta variant: newspaper

BEIJING, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The vaccine doses currently being administered across China continue to demonstrate good preventive and protective effects against the COVID-19 Delta variant, China Daily reported Monday.

"Available findings suggest that the Delta variant might diminish protection from COVID-19 vaccines, but current shots can still have good preventive and protective effects against the strain," Feng Zijian, a researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), was quoted as saying.

The Delta variant is estimated to be nearly twice as transmissible as the original strain, and spreads much faster and is more likely to induce severe symptoms among patients, said Feng.

Although no vaccine can provide 100 percent protection against viral infections, various COVID-19 variants can still be controlled with existing vaccines, said Shao Yiming, another researcher at China CDC.

Shao further noted that evidence-based studies show that China's domestic COVID-19 vaccines can effectively reduce rates of hospitalization, severe cases and deaths.