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China’s health officials claimed on Sunday that the country has reached a milestone after administering more than one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines. With about 2.5 billion vaccine doses administered across the world till now, China’s contribution to the global vaccination is more than one-third.
The announcement was made by China’s National Health Commission which also said that the last 100 million doses were administered in just 5 days.
China’s vaccination campaign had started slowly as the country was able to suppress Coronavirus very effectively through strictly implemented local lockdowns and mass testing, giving little incentive to citizens to get vaccinated. It is also the largest exporter of COVID-19 vaccines, having exported more than 350 million doses according to data from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, the detection of the more dangerous Delta variant of Coronavirus in the Chinese city of Guangzhou has served as a wake-up call for many. Chinese authorities are also trying to encourage vaccination by offering incentives like free eggs and shopping coupons.
China aims to fully vaccinate about 40% of its citizens by the end of June and 70% of its 1.4 billion people by the end of this year. The country has approved four indigenously made vaccines as of now with two of them- Sinopharm and Sinovac having received approval from the World Health Organization(WHO) as well.
The Chinese government-run news agency Xinhua had reported in April that China is expected to manufacture more than 3 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine this year. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Chinese health authorities reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 in the country.