How much did China pay to vaccinate its population against Covid-19? The bill is in
- A national health body says the cost per dose was about the same for the main jabs used around the country
- But the much bigger burden of enforcing the zero-Covid strategy was shouldered by local governments
In a statement on Thursday, the National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA), which oversees the state health insurance fund, said the inactivated vaccines – the ones most widely used in China – cost 16 yuan per dose on average.
Two other Chinese vaccines – an adenovirus-vectored jab by CanSino and a protein-based one, mostly by Anhui Zhifei Longcom – also cost about 16 yuan a dose.
That compares with a weighted average purchase price of US$20.69 per dose paid by the US government for 1.2 billion doses of Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines, according to the San Francisco-based Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.
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The NHSA said it spent 150 billion yuan in 2021 and 2022 buying the vaccines and inoculating the population.