Chinese CDC director refutes reportedly claiming Chinese vaccines have low protection rate

Gao said the situation "was a complete misunderstanding" and further explained his point.

"The protection rates of all vaccines in the world are sometimes high, and sometimes low. How to improve their efficacy is a question that needs to be considered by scientists around the world ... In this regard, I suggest that we can consider adjusting the vaccination process, such as the number of doses and intervals and adopting sequential vaccination with different types of vaccines," he told the Chinese newspaper in an interview, published on Sunday.

Gao added that because this is the first time people are vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine, there is still a lot of scientific background that needs to be studied.

He explained that the current vaccination procedures were adapted from other vaccines and while they worked well so far, if improvements need to be made in the future, they should be adjusted on the base of the COVID-19 vaccination situation characteristics.

"If we go with the traditional way of developing a vaccine, we wouldn't have had a vaccine within a year. But scientists all over the world developed COVID-19 vaccines within a few months, which is the first time in the world's history. There are many scientific questions that need to be addressed," Gao said.

The World Health Organisation marked the efficacy rate of COVID-19 vaccines to stand at 50 percent or above, while the qualified brink for most other vaccines starts at around 70 percent.

Meanwhile, China published a first ever version of guidelines on COVID-19 vaccination.

"Vaccines have to be used fairly and the world should share vaccines. If the world doesn't share vaccines, the virus will share the world," Gao said.

The official encouraged people to get vaccinated.