China's Sinovac booster shot is 94% efficient against Omicron: Company

Sinovac claimed that a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine is 94 per cent effective against the Omicron variant.

China's biotech firm Sinovac claimed that a third dose of its Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is 94 per cent effective against the Omicron variant of the COVID-19.

This comes a day after a study found that the two doses of the vaccine failed to generate any detectable antibody response against the fast-spreading variant.

The study was conducted by the company on 20 people who received two shots and another 48 who received three shots. Seven in the first group and 45 in the second tested positive in neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant, the company said in a statement to the Global Times.

Sinovac said that the data demonstrated that the administration of a booster shot of its vaccine can effectively enhance the vaccine's neutralizing capacity to the Omicron variant, read the statement.

The company's findings are in contrast with those released on Tuesday in a preprint paper by the HKU researchers.

The university study also examined neutralising antibodies, one arm of immune response that serves as a rough marker for protection against infection.

Of 25 people who received a full two-dose course of CoronaVac, none were found to have detectable levels of neutralising antibodies, according to study author and top infectious disease expert Yuen Kwok-yung and his team.

The Omicron variant, first discovered in early November, has been reported in 77 countries and regions, according to the World Health Organization.