Giuseppe Bigatti, a Shanghai-based Italian doctor who received Chinese COVID-19 vaccine shots earlier this year, told Xinhua in a recent interview that China's homegrown vaccines are safe and can effectively guard against the virus.
Bigatti, a hysteroscopy specialist, has been working as head of the Sino-Europe Life Expert Center at Shanghai's Renji Hospital since 2019.
As a frontline worker with high exposure risks, he received two doses of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine in January and February this year.
He said he had not experienced any adverse reaction since the inoculation, which offers another testament to the safety of Chinese COVID-19 vaccines.
"I believe the vaccine is the only way to defeat COVID-19," he said. He added that he has been encouraging his family and friends in Shanghai to take vaccine jabs since the city announced a plan to administer domestically-developed vaccines to expatriates living there voluntarily from March 29.
Shanghai was among the first batch of Chinese cities to launch mass inoculation programs for foreigners.
Produced by Xinhua Global Service
