German expatriates will be the initial recipients of the first foreign-made Covid-19 vaccine to be delivered to China. A spokesperson for the German government said a batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines is on its way to China. No other details were available on the timing and size of the delivery, but Berlin is pushing for non-German foreigners in the country to be allowed access to the shot if they want it. China agreed to allow the 20,000 German nationals in China to get the shot following a deal during Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s visit to Beijing last month. The German leader pressed for Beijing to allow the shot to be made freely available to Chinese citizens as well. The spokesperson also confirmed that Chinese citizens in Europe can now be vaccinated with China’s Sinovac. Earlier this month the German health ministry granted a permit for the import of Sinovac so it can be given to Chinese citizens in Germany. The shot has not been approved for use by Europe’s drug regulator, but the World Health Organization has given its green light for its use. Beijing has so far insisted on using only domestically produced vaccines, which are not based on Western mRNA technology but on more traditional technologies. China is dismantling its strict zero-Covid regime of lockdowns and mass testing, while dealing with a surge of cases that has caught a fragile health system unprepared. Experts predict that the country of 1.4 billion people could face more than a million Covid-19 deaths next year. Allowing German expats access to a Western shot is a big gesture to Berlin, reflecting Beijing’s effort to strengthen ties with the EU’s biggest economy after years of tensions over trade and climate between the two countries. Frankfurt-listed shares in BioNTech briefly spiked on news of the shipment, and were up 1.9 per cent at 14.56 GMT. Pfizer shares were up 0.6 per cent in New York. BioNTech was not immediately available for comment on Wednesday. Mainland Chinese head to Macau to get mRNA vaccine unavailable at home The WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a briefing on Wednesday the UN agency is concerned by the spike in Covid-19 infections in the world’s No 2 economy. He said the WHO is supporting the government to focus its efforts on vaccinating people at the highest risk across the country. China has nine domestically developed Covid-19 vaccines approved for use, more than any other country. But none has been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have for boosters in many developed countries. The two shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are the most widely used around the world. Early on in the pandemic, BioNTech struck a deal with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical with a view to supplying the shots to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. So far, the regulatory review for the mainland has not been concluded. BioNTech has said the decision was up to Chinese regulators and has not given a reason for the delay. China’s zero-Covid policy and lockdown measures have kept death and infection rates minimal over the past months but caused massive disruptions both domestically and in global trade and supply chains. China uses a narrow definition of Covid-19 deaths and reported no new fatalities for Tuesday, even crossing one off its overall tally since the pandemic began, now at 5,241 – a fraction of the tolls of many much less populous countries. The National Health Commission said on Tuesday only deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure in patients who had the virus are classified as Covid-19 deaths.