China would probably continue its strict anti-epidemic policies for “quite a long time” given the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic. Most importantly, no vaccine is 100% effective in preventing the virus, Feng Duojia, President of the China Vaccine Industry Association, told the Global Times. To keep requiring nucleic acid tests for international arrivals is very important to ensure safe implementation of the policy, Feng warned. “It is still a long way off before the world can only use vaccination documents for international travels,” Feng said.
On June 19, China crossed the milestone of having administered one million Covid-19 vaccine doses, almost 40% of the 2.5 billion shots given globally. China has administered 68.8 doses per 100 people, ranking the country seventh highest globally. The world's highest vaccination rate is 144.57 doses per 100 people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). China has also provided more than 350 million doses to other countries. China is expected to have 70% of the target population fully vaccinated by the end of this year and achieve herd immunity. The Beijing municipal government announced that it had fully vaccinated 80% of the city’s residents aged 18 or above, or 15.6 million people. The capital is the first metropolis in China to announce reaching the critical threshold.
After the World Health Organization (WHO) officially approved two Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccines, South Korea became the first country to fully exempt travelers vaccinated with a Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccine from its mandatory two-week quarantine starting on July 1, a move seen by many as a long-awaited trial for more countries to open their borders to travelers holding “Chinese vaccine passports.” South Korea's exemption applies to those who have received one of the vaccines approved by the WHO – Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson (J&J), Moderna, AstraZeneca, Covidshield, Sinopham and Sinovac – while travelers still need to be tested before and after arriving in South Korea. Visitors from countries with major outbreaks or variants will not be allowed to skip the quarantine, local media reported. Experts said that South Korea's policy is a “good step forward” in trials for mutual vaccination recognition, and reflects South Korea's confidence in Chinese vaccines.
Japanese business representatives called for resumption of direct flights between Chinese and Japanese cities with no quarantine requirement. Takashima Ryusuke, Director General of the Beijing Office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), said that he was looking forward to the reopening of direct flights between Beijing and Japanese cities, since it is very inconvenient for Japanese businessmen to visit China at the moment. “This is something that needs to be addressed urgently, and we hope that there will be direct flights and no 14-day quarantine,” Takashima said, noting that although businesses can communicate through the internet, the efficiency is limited. “There has been no particular progress in terms of the opening of direct flights," Daisuke Mikogami, Chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (CJCCI), said, adding that before coming to Beijing, there is now a three-week quarantine, which is very difficult for Japanese businessmen. However, Chinese-made vaccines are not currently approved in Japan – unlike South Korea – and there are still many Covid-19 cases reported in Japan, Xiang Haoyu, Research Fellow at the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times. “Under such circumstances, the hopes raised by the Japanese side do not conform to the actual situation, and they are not conducive to China's basic domestic requirements for epidemic prevention and control, nor is it conducive to our safety,” said Xiang.
In Guangdong province, a turning point in the recent outbreak arrived on June 15 as for the first time since May 21 no new local Covid-19 cases were reported and more communities lifted their lockdown. However, on June 21 Dongguan in Guangdong province launched citywide nucleic acid testing, shortly after two locally transmitted cases were reported.
Euronews reported that China-made test kits for Covid-19 were used on a daily basis at the G7 Summit in the UK. The kits were delivered by Xiamen Biotime, a company dedicated to developing and manufacturing in vitro diagnostics (IVD) equipment in Xiamen, Fujian province. On April 21, Xiamen Biotime exported 47,000 antigen tests worth more than USD450 million on a China-Europe freight train destined for Duisburg, Germany. In recent months, companies in Jilin, Shandong and Guangdong provinces have also exported their self-developed antigen tests to the European market. As of April 27, 620 domestic makers of Covid-19 tests were put on the official “white list” for export.
This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.
