More than one billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines are administered across China by the weekend, making it a serious milestone for a rustic that continues to roll out the world’s largest inoculation drive against the deadly disease.
China’s vaccination programme has picked up speed in recent months because it tries to guard itself from new variants of the infection coming from abroad.
The country’s national health commission (NHC) announced the milestone on Sunday, saying the last 100 million doses got in only five days. The NHC, however, didn't say what percentage people had been fully vaccinated, with most of the vaccines given in two doses.
“China accelerated its pace of free Covid-19 vaccinations for the entire nation since late March. It took China 25 days to climb from 100 million doses to 200 million doses, 16 days to extend from 200 million to 300 million, and 6 days from 800 million to 900 million,” Xinhua press agency reported, quoting updates from the NHC.
China’s state media called the government’s effort the most important “vaccination drive within the history of latest China”, pertaining to the beginning of the Communist Party of China’s governance in 1949.
Globally, quite 2.59 billion doses are administered across 180 countries, consistent with data collected by Bloomberg.
Earlier this month, China’s foreign ministry had said that quite 200,000 foreigners within the country are vaccinated.
At least 70% of the target population in China is predicted to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the top of this year, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the NHC. The large-scale vaccination campaign administered across China has also shown that Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines are safe, Zeng claimed. a complete of 21 Covid-19 vaccines entered clinical trials in China since last year.
“So far, four vaccines are granted conditional marketing approval and three are authorised for emergency use within the country,” the Xinhua report said. Chinese regulators haven’t approved any non-Chinese vaccines thus far .
Also, China has given vaccine aid to just about 90 countries and 4 international organisations besides exporting jabs to a minimum of 40 countries. China has already provided quite 350 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccines overseas, consistent with Mao Junfeng, a politician from the industry and IT ministry had said earlier this month.
