Chinese laboratory Sinopharm announced on Wednesday that one of its Covid-19 vaccines was 79% effective, a figure lower than those claimed by its American competitors Pfizer (95%) and Moderna (94.1%). Sinopharm is the first Chinese pharmacist to release figures regarding the effectiveness of a vaccine in preparation. However, the Chinese authorities have started to vaccinate more than a million people with products that they have not yet formally validated.

Britain's Astrazeneca, associated with the University of Oxford, for its part claimed an effectiveness rate of 70%, but which could reach 100% with two doses. China, where the novel coronavirus first emerged a year ago, has put enormous resources into developing vaccines, which it has promised to make "a global public good."