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Over 1.45 billion coronavirus jabs given in China, says watchdog

The vaccination of priority groups began in China on December 15, 2020

BEIJING, July 19./TASS/. The number of coronavirus jabs received by Chinese nationals has exceeded 1.45 billion, China’s National Health Commission said on its website on Monday.

As many as1,456,557,000 COVID-19 jabs were given in the country as of July 18, it said. In June, Chinese authorities said that 80 to 85% of the population (over one billion people) were to be fully inoculated for herd immunity. Given that most of the Chinese vaccines have two components, 2.2 billion doses will be needed.

Currently, China uses four local vaccines, and three more vaccines have received permission for emergency use. Twenty-two medications have been allowed for use in clinical trials. Earlier, Chinese authorities approved the emergency use of Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines for children aged between 3 and 17.

The vaccination of priority groups began in China on December 15, 2020. As of the end of February, vaccines were distributed among 54.52 million Chinese residents. As many as 126.6 million jabs were made by April 1. By May 1, their number grew to 270.41 million, growing further to 681.9 million by June 1.