China administers 1.2bn Covid vaccine doses

BEIJING: China said on Tuesday it had administered over 1.2 billion doses of its Covid-19 vaccines, the most in any country in the world.

As of 28th June, 31 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities under the central government had been given a total of 1.206 billion doses, the National Health Commission said in a statement. According to Our World in Data tracking website, at least 223 million people in China have been fully vaccinated, while as many as 2.96 billion doses have been administered globally.

The world’s most populous nation, where coronavirus was first detected in December 2019, began a mass immunisation drive this January.

It is only administering the vaccines developed by local pharmaceutical companies, two of which – Sinovac and Sinopharm – have also been approved by the World Health Organisation.

As part of its “vaccine diplomacy”, China has exported and donated vaccines to more than 66 countries, as well as international organisations. After China, US, India, Brazil, UK, Germany, Italy and Turkey have given the most vaccine shots.