WHO says it’s closely watching China as the country grapples with its worst Covid surge

Shanghai, home to the world’s largest container shipping port, began a two-part lockdown on March 28 and has yet to announce when restrictions will lift.

The World Health Organization said on Monday that it is keeping a close eye on a surge in Covid cases in mainland China.

The director of WHO's immunization and vaccine program said the agency is in contact with public health authorities in China about the resurgence of Covid. The WHO doesn't have enough information to make an assessment yet, but they need to monitor the effectiveness of regional lockdowns and the country's vaccines.

We will continue to follow that situation as it develops and as they respond to the situation so that we can understand the nature of the cases, underlying vaccination status and other components there.

The country is grappling with its worst Covid outbreak since the virus was discovered in Wuhan over two years ago. The National Health Commission of mainland China reported 26,411 Covid cases on Sunday, the most in a single day so far.

In order to contain the outbreak, Beijing has put into place online learning for some students, especially in Shanghai, where more than 26,000 cases were reported on Sunday.

Almost all of the 26 million people in the city are in a state of lock down. There are orders to work from home and the suspension of public transit.

It is part of China's zero-tolerance Covid policy, which helped the country rebound from the initial wave of the Pandemic in early 2020.

The chair of the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization said that it would be important to see if the latest outbreak is fully effective. The original Covid strain is more transmissible than the subvariant.

There is insufficient information on the Covid vaccines being administered in China.

According to a WHO press release, the group recently reviewed data on a vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics. The product will not be given any recommendations until it is listed by the WHO for emergency use, according to the press release.

We won't be able to make any further comments until we see the data.

CanSino Biologics has yet to be given to Chinese citizens. The vaccine developer said last week that it has been approved for clinical trials in China.

Chinese officials said last month that covid vaccines had been updated to fight against omicron and other strains. China's vaccines are inactivated, meaning they use dead or weakened viruses to produce an immune response.

According to preliminary lab studies, Sinovac and Sinopharm's vaccines offer less protection against omicron than Pfizer and Moderna's.

According to Our World In Data, 88.5% of China's population has received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine.