China has administered over 1 billion Covid vaccine doses

Shanghai, China, June 20 (EFE).- China has administered more than one billion anti-coronavirus vaccine doses, the health authorities said Sunday.

In a brief statement, the the National Health Commission said health workers had administered more than 1.01 billion doses in the country as of Saturday.

Some 100 million of these were administered in the last six days, according to local media reports, indicating that the inoculation drive was gaining momentum.

The Chinese authorities aim to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the population – including children between 3 and 17 years old – before the end of the year.

Of the seven vaccines authorized by China for emergency use, five have two doses, one has three, and another, the one developed by CanSino Biologics Inc., only one.

Four of these have market approvals also.

At the moment, the Chinese authorities have not greenlighted any foreign vaccines for use in the mainland. But the foreign jabs are used in the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong.

Chinese pharmaceutical company Fosun Pharma has an agreement for months to distribute the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in mainland China. EFE vec/pd/ssk