Top city expert: Dawn of victory over COVID-19 pandemic has appeared

Imaginechina

A booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine can reduce the rate of severe illness to 0.1 percent, according to a latest study among Shanghai's novel coronavirus cases in the last half a year.

Vaccination is greatly related to the proportion of serious symptoms among coronavirus patients, Dr Zhang Wenhong, head of Shanghai's COVID-19 treatment team and director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, said, claiming "The dawn of our victory over the pandemic has appeared."

His team finished the analysis on a total of 2,266 local and imported COVID-19 cases reported in Shanghai over the last six months on Monday.

"Even after taking two jabs of the vaccine, there is still a possibility to suffer serious illness and the need for oxygen inhalation," Zhang said on his Weibo account on Monday.

Among local cases, 94 percent of patients have received the vaccines. Due to the high vaccination rate and full medical support, no deaths have been reported and none of them has developed into serious or dangerous conditions, he claimed.

"The booster shot of the vaccine can further reduce the rate of severe illness to 0.1 percent and avoid dangerous symptoms," the expert pointed out.

The conclusion has been verified during the cooperation and joint studies between domestic and Hong Kong medical teams amid the ongoing COVID-19 resurgence in the south Chinese special administration area.

Among the 1,561 deaths in Hong Kong during the city's fifth round of outbreak, 94.7 percent were elderly patients and 91.3 percent failed to receive two vaccine shots, Zhang revealed.

The death rate was reduced to 0.04 percent among patients with two jabs of the vaccine, compared with 1.25 percent among those without vaccination.

The death rate could rise to 8.6 percent among patients above 80 years old and be reduced to 1.57 percent after the seniors took two shots.

Zhang said a proper vaccination strategy is vital to walk out of the shadow of the pandemic, based on the experience of Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Shanghai reported 1,243 imported COVID-19 cases in January and February this year, accounting for 38 percent of the nation's total and about 80 percent of total imported cases in Shanghai last year, according to Zhang.

He said the bottom line of Shanghai's fight against the pandemic is to prevent any significant scale rebound of COVID-19 cases, especially under the current double pressures of imported and local cases.

"The target is to prevent the virus from becoming life-threatening while maintaining normal life," the doctor explained.

Shanghai's anti-COVID-19 teams have been working round clock to keep pace or go faster than the spread of the virus with precious prevention, strict control among high-risk groups, as well as screening and monitoring of close contacts to cut off the transmission chain, Zhang revealed.

The wider promotion of booster shots, an optimized vaccination strategy and antiviral drugs can enhance the nation's ability to fight against COVID-19, he said.