Why China may struggle to meet its Covid-19 vaccination target by June
- Jabs in acute shortage, with production capacity yet to catch up with domestic need and export demand
- Average doses given per day would need to more than double for China to hit its June target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population
The building management later apologised after complaints were made to the mayor’s hotline, but said it was only following orders from lower-level government.
Meanwhile, primary schools in Dongcheng district were urging pupils’ parents and grandparents to take jabs and promising to commemorate classes with high numbers of inoculated families, while district authorities in Shanghai tried to tempt people to have a vaccine by offering cooking oil, milk and cash coupons.
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After ramping up vaccination drive with incentives, China administers 200 million Covid-19 shots
Such “carrot and stick” measures reflect the urgency needed if China is to hit its target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population – 560 million people – by June.
By Wednesday, the country had administered 243.9 million doses, having given about 4.51 million doses a day on average since the National Health Commission (NHC) started to release a daily count. Roughly 10 million doses per day would be needed to reach the June target.
“From my calculation, the target looks unlikely to be reached, not even if only counting people vaccinated with just one dose, if the vaccination pace continues like this,” said Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York think tank.
“On the supply side, the capacity cannot keep up. The vaccines need to be given to domestic use and for exports or donations, which is also lagging behind China’s promises. China pledges large production capacity, but it takes time to turn capacity into output.”