Coronavirus: Chinese residents start receiving vaccine boosters

Name: China under pressure as Nanjing airport coronavirus cluster spreads to 15 cities
Uploaded: 2021-10-20T23:00:17.000Z
Duration: 2 min 37 s
Description: China under pressure as Nanjing airport coronavirus cluster spreads to 15 cities

Local authorities across the country are rolling out the shots after studies showed waning immunity in the type of jabs most commonly used in China

Details of the schemes vary across the country, but many places will now allow under-60s to receive an extra shot along with more vulnerable groups

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A Guangzhou resident receives a booster shot. Photo: Xinhua

Josephine Ma

Published: 7:00am, 21 Oct 2021Updated: 7:44am, 21 Oct 2021

A number of Chinese provinces and cities have started giving Covid-19 vaccine boosters to people who received their first two shots at least six months ago.

The roll-out comes after close to 80 per cent of the population has been vaccinated, and as more data shows waning immunity from the inactivated vaccines that are the most commonly used type in China.

Last week, an expert group from the World Health Organization recommended that over-60s given Sinovac or Sinopharm’s vaccines should receive a third shot, although they refrained from calling it a booster.

“The WHO is a highly conservative organisation and it is only when they have very strong evidence that they would make these strong recommendations,” Jin Dong-Yan, a virologist from the University of Hong Kong, said.

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China under pressure as Nanjing airport coronavirus cluster spreads to 15 cities

In July, an expert panel recommended the use of BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine as a booster. The vaccine, which reported high efficacy rates in trials, uses advanced mRNA technology and is widely used in the West. However, there was no mention of it in a spate of notices issued by Chinese local regulators about their booster roll-outs.