Despite A Slow Rollout, China Says It Will Vaccinate 40% Population Against COVID By June

China, from where the COVID-19 originated in 2019 has made a remarkable comeback even as the world continues to struggle from it.

Like many countries, China is also rolling out COVID-19 vaccines to its citizens. But unlike the way China built hospitals and imposed lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus in the early days, the vaccine rollout is anything but fast.

AP

This is despite the fact that four Chinese companies have already developed vaccines against COVID-19.

Three vaccines so far

So far, China has cleared Sinovac's CoronaVac, one of Sinopharm two Covid-19 vaccines, Anhui Zhifei Longcom's vaccine, and CanSino Biologics vaccine.

These are also being exported to other countries as well, while the pace of the vaccination is still slow at home.

AFP

But according to health experts in China their country is lagging in its coronavirus vaccination rollout because it has the disease largely under control, but plans to inoculate 40% of its population by June.

Zhong Nanshan, the leader of a group of experts attached to the National Health Commission, said the country has delivered 52.52 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Feb. 28.

The target is the first China has offered publicly since it began its mass immunization campaign for key groups in mid-December.

China slow to vaccinate people in comparison to others

China has been slow to vaccinate its people relative to other countries, inoculating only 3.56% of its population of 1.4 billion so far, according to Zhong. Ranked first in the world in terms of percentage of population is Israel, which has vaccinated over 90% of its people. The U.S. has vaccinated about 22% of its population.

AFP

Chinese health experts say the country has enough vaccine supply for its population, although the country has pledged to provide close to half a billion doses abroad, roughly 10 times the number it has delivered at home.

¡°The current vaccination pace is very low due to outbreak control (being) so good in China, but I think the capacity is enough," said Zhang Wenhong, an infectious diseases expert based in Shanghai who also spoke on the panel.

AFP

Developers of China¡¯s four currently approved vaccines have said they could manufacture up to 2.6 billion doses by the end of this year. Still, vaccinating China¡¯s massive population will be a daunting task.