Nearly 282,000 vaccinated against Covid-19 in eastern China

Shanghai, China, Dec 29 (efe-epa).- A province in eastern China has already inoculated nearly 282,000 people from risk groups who have received emergency Covid-19 vaccines so far, the official Global Times reported Tuesday.

The region was the first to start the vaccination campaign in China.

Regional authorities said hundreds of health workers have administered nearly 463,000 doses of vaccines to prevent the coronavirus infection.

Those who were inoculated have reported no serious side effects.

The vaccine is given in two doses to each person.

The “emergency” vaccination campaign covers those engaged in import cold chain, port quarantine, cargo handling, transportation, disease control, and fresh food markets.

People who work or study in countries where the risk of contagion is still high are also included.

The Global Times reported that multiple Chinese cities have rolled out emergency vaccination plans amid sporadic outbreaks of the coronavirus across the country.

The administration plans to end the campaign for risk groups on Feb.5, a week before the lunar New Year holiday period, the main holiday season in China.

The holiday season, an annual family reunification ritual, triggers the biggest human migration annually in the world.

According to the provincial government, vaccination will be extended to other citizens such as the elderly or patients with chronic diseases after it is approved for commercial use.

China has not yet given the green light to the commercialization of any of the vaccines developed in the country.

Zhejiang has trained nearly 16,000 medical workers for administrating Covid-19 vaccines.

The eastern region, home to some 58.5 million people, was the first to carry out the emergency use of the vaccine. The emergency use was approved by the government in July.

China’s big cities, such as Shenzhen (southeast) or Shanghai (east), have also joined the program recently for people at risk or employees whose jobs expose them to the contagion.

China has largely kept the pandemic under control, without adding deaths since mid-May even as the first case of the infection was reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

There have been some small outbreaks that have been increasing in recent weeks. EFE-EPA

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