<p>The World Health Organization announced on Friday it had approved a Covid-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for emergency use.</p>.<p>The vaccine, one of two main Chinese shots that collectively have already been given to hundreds of millions of people in China and abroad, becomes the first Covid-19 shot developed by a non-Western country to win the WHO's backing.</p>.<p>It is also the first time the WHO has given emergency use approval to any Chinese vaccine for any infectious disease.</p>.<p>A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators on a product's safety and efficacy and would allow the shot to be included in COVAX, the global programme to provide vaccines mainly for poor countries.</p>.<p>The WHO has previously given emergency approval to Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and, last week, Moderna.</p>
<p>The World Health Organization announced on Friday it had approved a Covid-19 vaccine from China's state-owned drugmaker Sinopharm for emergency use.</p>.<p>The vaccine, one of two main Chinese shots that collectively have already been given to hundreds of millions of people in China and abroad, becomes the first Covid-19 shot developed by a non-Western country to win the WHO's backing.</p>.<p>It is also the first time the WHO has given emergency use approval to any Chinese vaccine for any infectious disease.</p>.<p>A WHO emergency listing is a signal to national regulators on a product's safety and efficacy and would allow the shot to be included in COVAX, the global programme to provide vaccines mainly for poor countries.</p>.<p>The WHO has previously given emergency approval to Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and, last week, Moderna.</p>