Coronavirus: China hits goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of population before end of June

Name: Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine
Uploaded: 2021-06-25T17:30:34.000Z
Duration: 2 min 35 s
Description: Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine

More than 1.12 billion doses have been administered and 630 million people inoculated

For now, with variants circulating, social distancing, mask mandates and closed borders are still considered crucial to preventing major outbreaks

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A man waits to receive the Covid-19 vaccine at the Mong Ha sports complex in Macau on Monday. Photo: Xinhua

Zhuang Pinghui

Published: 1:30am, 26 Jun 2021Updated: 11:03am, 29 Jun 2021

China announced that it has achieved a key milestone, with 630 million people inoculated against Covid-19 by Thursday, as the country reached its target of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population by the end of June.

The country administered 24.7 million vaccine doses on Thursday alone, a record since the inoculation drive began in late March, bringing the total number to more than 1.12 billion.

Daily vaccinations accelerated from slightly over 2 million doses in late March to an average of more than 18 million in June as manufacturers scaled up production and local Covid-19 outbreaks startled residents into getting the shots.

“Over 40 per cent of the total population has been vaccinated. This is an important step towards establishing herd immunity,” according to a statement carried by state broadcaster China Central Television on Friday.

“This joint effort by the vaccine developers, manufacturers, regulators and supervising authorities of key sectors of vaccine production is a very important factor to guarantee the supplies of Covid-19 vaccines,” Cui Gang, a senior official with the commission, told CCTV.

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Inside a plant in China producing the WHO-approved Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine

The next target is the vaccination of 70 per cent of China’s 1.4 billion people by the end of the year, but that will not automatically translate into so-called herd immunity – a state that can limit the spread of the virus, or lifting any restrictions, experts said.