The Chinese Pharmaceutical Regulatory Authority approved the widespread use of Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccine, following Sinopharm's first.

Sinovac's product becomes the second Covid-19 vaccine to be licensed for mass use in China.

Before being approved for mass use, Sinopharm and Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccines were both approved by China for the emergency vaccination program, mainly for groups at higher risk of nCoV exposure.

Indonesia, Turkey, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Laos have licensed the emergency use of Sinovac's CoronaVac vaccine, the company said in a statement.

Covid-19 broke out in December 2019, appeared in 219 countries and territories with nearly 106 million cases, more than 2.3 million deaths, and nearly 78 million people recovered.

China has developed two vaccines using inactivated virus, including BBIBP-CorV from Sinopharm and CoronaVac from Sinovac.

Before being licensed for mass use, CoronaVac is approved for limited deployment in China.