China is expediting the R&D of COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron variant, an official from the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19 said on Thursday.

Since the emergence of the first coronavirus variant, Chinese companies have started R&D on vaccines targeting mutated virus strains to roll out more targeted vaccines for new variants quickly, Zheng Zhongwei, head of the working group for vaccine development, told China Media Group.

When the Delta variant became the dominant strain worldwide, Chinese companies upgraded their inactivated vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, vector viral vaccines and nucleic acid vaccines, he said. "Some of them have entered clinical trials," he added.

The aim is to get prepared, although the updated vaccines may not be needed eventually, he explained. 

"We are now also expediting the development of different types of vaccines against the Omicron variant. The goal is also to get prepared. The vaccines may not be used. But when we get prepared, we can use them when we need them," he said.

Can the Omicron variant evade current vaccines?

Preliminary evaluation shows the Omicron variant is more transmissible than the Delta variant. Still, a conclusion cannot be reached yet on whether it can evade current vaccines, he said.

The majority of the existing vaccines still have a noticeable effect in preventing severe disease and death caused by the variant, but they are to a certain extent less effective in protecting people from getting infected, he added.

Chinese vaccines have shown clear effectiveness in preventing against infections caused by various coronavirus variants that have circulated in different regions, and significant effect in preventing against severe disease and death, Zheng said.

"But in order to get better prepared, Chinese vaccine developers have carried out a series of work on vaccines targeting various variants," he noted.