COVID-19 vaccine available for Shanghai residents traveling abroad for work or study

Reservations for COVID-19 vaccinations for Shanghai residents traveling abroad for work or study begin on Thursday, city government officials announced on Wednesday.

The vaccine is available for permanent residents traveling overseas before February 12, but not yet for expats working or living in the city.

Reservations are required via mobile phone app Jiankangyun, and people must bring a passport, valid visa, airline ticket, ID card, and hukou, or residence permit, to appointments.

The vaccine requires two injections at an interval of at least 14 days.

Those receiving the vaccine should be between the ages of 18 and 59. Inquiries can be made at 12320, the city's health hotline.

According to the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccinations have begun in the city for priority groups at a high risk, such as inspection and quarantine customs staff who handle imported cold-chain products, medical workers and those working at frontier ports exposed to overseas infection hazards. Also included are community workers, government officials, police, firefighters, and people whose work is related to logistics, senior care, public sanitation, public utilities, transportation, funerals and interment, and telecommunications. 

Vaccinations should conclude on February 5.

As of Monday, 326,000 people in the city had received the vaccine with no serious adverse reactions reported, officials said.

The vaccine, which is free, has been tested on animals and humans as well as clinical tests. It curbs infection and replication of the virus, and triggers an immune response.

Anyone with a fever or a serious respiratory disease, who is allergic, pregnant, or has already been infected with the virus, should not get vaccinated.

About 60 to 90 percent of people receiving a first dose have been confirmed antibody positive within 14 to 28 days, and more than 90 percent are antibody positive 28 days after the second vaccination with continuous protection, health authorities said.

Although observation is ongoing, the vaccine's protection period is at least six months.

Inactivated vaccines for emergency use include two inactivated vaccines developed by the China National Biotec Group, affiliated with Sinopharm, and one by Sinovac Biotech. They are all undergoing international phase-III clinical trials.

In the Pudong New Area, two clinics will take in reservations for COVID-19 vaccine inoculation, while other districts has one each.

The Dapuqiao Subdistrict Neighborhood Health Center in Huangpu District said it will start inoculation from Friday based on online reservation and the service time is Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday afternoon.

The health center said it has prepared COVID-19 vaccines and finished relevant equipment adjustment and staff training.

It will conduct epidemic history investigation and temperature check, and check the identity information of those to be vaccinated before inoculation.

Nearly 1,000 people from 25 medical institutions have been vaccinated with the first dose so far at the center, and no obvious adverse reaction has been detected, it said.