China’s Covid-19 vaccine drive ramps up as Beijing rolls out incentives from eggs to shopping vouchers
- After setting a goal to vaccinate 40 per cent of its 1.4 billion-strong population by the end of June, China has a steep task ahead of it
- In Beijing, local authorities are pulling out all the stops to coax people into getting vaccinated, from public pressure to free shopping vouchers
With one eye on the long line that snaked out in front of her, Beijing resident Wang Shuhui softly shook her head in frustration.
After twice being summoned by her neighbourhood committee to get her Covid-19 vaccination, the woman in her 60s had finally relented and was now stuck in a queue with nearly 100 people waiting to get an injection.
Posters advertising the area’s vaccination drive have sprouted up all over in recent weeks, from the white walls of the Yonghe Lama Temple to residential buildings near the Russian embassy.
To encourage more elderly to get the jab, Beixianqiao subdistrict office has even announced a reward of two boxes of eggs to everyone above 60 that received a second dose.
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“The eggs don’t matter,” Wang said as she waited in the basement of a community building. “What matters most is that the residential committee keeps urging me [to get the vaccine].”
From public pressure to shopping vouchers, authorities in China are pulling out all the stops to coax people into getting vaccinated.
After setting a goal to vaccinate 40 per cent of its 1.4 billion-strong population by the end of June, China has a steep task ahead of it.
Local officials are under intense pressure to speed up vaccinations, but because China has been so successful in stamping out community transmission, many people are unfussed about getting a jab.
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China’s vaccination rate was below 8 doses administered per 100 people by the end of March, far below 44 in the United States and 50 in Britain, according to Our World in Data.
The slow pace is not only expected to limit how quickly China, the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, can welcome back travellers, but also expose the world’s second largest economy to the risk of new outbreaks and repeated lockdowns.
Some 20km to the south of where Wang waited in line, a loudspeaker in front of a supermarket in the town of Jiugong announced free shopping coupons via an app for immunised residents, while fliers advertised free shuttle buses to vaccination centres.
Daxing district, where Jiugong is located, will hand out 200 million yuan (US$30.4 million) worth of grocery vouchers to local residents who complete their vaccine courses.
Nationwide, the pace of vaccinations is speeding up. China administered another 36.98 million doses in just eight days between March 24-31, almost half of the total number of shots made in the previous three months, according to the National Health Commission.
“China’s vaccination campaign has accelerated sharply over the past week,” analysts at the Capital Economics wrote in a note on Thursday. “On a per capita basis, China trails developed economies that have suffered bad outbreaks by a long way, but it is pulling ahead of the rest of emerging Asia.”
The accelerated pace of vaccination means China could “achieve herd immunity faster than previously expected”, Ernan Cui, a China analyst at research firm Gavekal Dragonomics, said in a note late last month.
China’s ambitious vaccination drive could allow it to hit an economic growth rate of 9.3 per cent this year, Oxford Economics said on Tuesday.
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Despite the sweeteners on offer, many people in Beijing appear to have chosen to get vaccinated for different reasons.
“Even if there were no benefits you should get vaccinated. It not only helps you, but also makes the people around you safe,” said Jiugong resident Cui Gang.
Wang Qiang, who works at a footcare store in Daxing, said that local authorities had visited his shop daily to ensure all staff were vaccinated.
“They never came again after our colleagues were vaccinated,” he said, pointing to photocopies of the staff’s health certificates posted on the wall of the store.
My company keeps pressing me to get vaccinated, saying it’s a lack of political awareness if I don’t
Some parts of Beijing like Dongcheng district have ordered all shops and restaurants to post a running tally of their vaccination rates on the front door.
Still, many people in the capital are reluctant to get a jab.
“My company keeps pressing me to get vaccinated, saying it’s a lack of political awareness if I don’t,” Li Zhiyong, a resident in Dongcheng who works at a state-owned enterprise, said in a WeChat group.
“I won’t take the shots. I asked the company what they would do if something goes wrong – they said they won’t take responsibility as the injection is voluntary.”
Tony Wong, a start-up entrepreneur in Chaoyang district, said he was in no rush to get vaccinated as he still had to undergo quarantine if he travelled abroad.
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“If I can go abroad [without quarantine] after getting vaccinated, I will take the jab immediately,” he said.
The range of incentive programmes for vaccination in Beijing are not without their problems, either. Some residents complained about the slow process to get rewards like eggs, while the conditions to use grocery vouchers in Daxing vary across participating supermarket chains.
Liu Mo, who works at a supermarket that was handing out physical vouchers, said she did not bother to claim the coupons despite being fully vaccinated.
“I have to spend 200 yuan before getting the 20 yuan discount – I don’t have that much money,” Liu said.
