China Accelerates Vaccination To Form Herd Immunity Sooner
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• China is ramping up efforts to vaccinate 560 million people, or 40% of China's population, by the end of June, and another 330 million people will be vaccinated by the end of the year, covering 64% of the total population.
• Experts said China needs to speed up resource mobilization nationwide for the new vaccination target.
Representional image of a COVID-19 Vaccine
Vaccination: Catching up
China is ramping up efforts to vaccinate 560 million people, or 40 percent of China's population, by the end of June, and another 330 million people will be vaccinated by the end of the year, covering 64 percent of the total population, the Global Times has learned.
Officials from regional branches of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) across the country were summoned on Tuesday via a televised meeting to prepare for the acceleration of mass inoculations with higher targets and faster rates, the Global Times learned.
The accelerated vaccination campaign is aimed at catching up with the countries leading in vaccination rates as fast as possible to avoid an "immunization gap," according to a meeting summary viewed by the Global Times.
It is also meant to prevent possible outbreaks in spring and to safeguard a series of upcoming important events such as the Communist Party of China's centenary celebrations in July, international conferences and major sport events such as Asia Youth Games 2021 in November, and the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, the summary said.
Some provinces and municipalities in China, including Anhui and Shanghai, have set a target to vaccinate 40 to 50 percent of the population by the end of June, staff from local CDCs told the Global Times on Tuesday. Their targets are part of the national vaccination plan, they said. China has a national population of 1.4 billion.
Herd Immunity
China's top medical advisor Zhong Nanshan said Monday that China aims to raise the domestic vaccination target to 40 percent by June. By the end of February, 52.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered, according to Zhong. Currently China has a vaccination rate of 3.5 percent, far behind other big economies in forming herd immunity.
Considering the target to vaccinate 60-70 percent of the population to establish herd immunity, the current progress of the Chinese mainland's vaccination program is probably a little slow, Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, told the Global Times in a previous interview.
"If some countries, where the epidemic used to be severe or vaccination proceeds fast, such as India and Israel, could reach herd immunity by the end of the year and resume international travel, I am afraid this will create an 'immunity gap' between the mainland and these places, pushing up the risk of imported cases to the mainland," Jin warned. "Tight schedule, tough task, and much faster inoculation rate," read the meeting notes summarizing the new vaccination target.
China needs to speed up resource mobilization nationwide
All localities should set up adequate vaccination sites, medical staff, intensify vaccination training, and if necessary, set up temporary vaccination sites, reads the inoculation guidance in the notes. "Financially, the vaccination costs are covered by local medical insurance funds, with subsidies from local public finance," said the notes.
Experts said China needs to speed up resource mobilization nationwide for the target. Existing approved vaccine manufacturers are also expanding production capacity to meet the country's new targets.
Yin Weidong, CEO of Chinese vaccine producer Sinovac Biotech, told the Global Times in an exclusive interview on Wednesday that the company is expanding its annual capacity to 2 billion doses by the end of June.
Production of the recently approved CanSinoBIO's vaccine is expected to reach 500 million doses in 2021. The manufacturer is building a factory in Shanghai to further boost capacity. Another leading producer Sinopharm claims it can guarantee manufacture of 1 billion doses in 2021.
CDC branches of Shanghai and Anhui told the Global Times that they have all been asked to accelerate the pace of vaccination. Even though this is a difficult target, there is confidence that the goal will be achieved, an Anhui CDC staff, who attended the provincial vaccination planning session on Tuesday, told the Global Times on condition of anonymity.
During a national planning session of the Chinese CDC on Tuesday, authorities clarified the vaccination goals for each province and assigned tasks to each region, said the employee. A Shanghai CDC staff also said the city's vaccination program will be renewed to meet the new target.
Source: Global Times.
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