China has given “conditional” approval to a second COVID-19 vaccine, developed by Sinovac Biotech, reported AFP quoting the pharmaceutical company’s statement.

Notably, the vaccine was already rolled out for essential workers but Saturday’s approval permits for its use on the general public.

A conditional approval basically helps the release of emergency drugs in markets when clinical trials are yet to meet normal standards.

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The approval comes after multiple domestic and overseas trials of the vaccine in countries, including Brazil and Turkey, although “efficacy and safety results need to be further confirmed”, Sinovac said in a statement.

Sinovac Biotech said trials in Brazil had shown around 50% efficacy in preventing infection and 80% efficacy in preventing cases requiring medical intervention.

In December, Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm received the same approval to put out the country’s first vaccine against COVID-19 in the market.

Sinopharm said in December that its vaccine had a 79.34% efficacy rate.

China has been racing to develop indigenous vaccines and aims to vaccinate 50 million people before the start of the Lunar New Year in mid-February, despite not releasing any detailed clinical trial data about the jabs.