June 30 was the deadline for China to reach its goal of vaccinating about 40% of its targeted population, and authorities in several provinces said they had achieved the goal in advance, including Heilongjiang, Hunan and Guangxi. This does not mean that all those people have already received two doses. In total, China had administered about 1.23 billion doses of Covid-19 vaccines as of June 29, according to the National Health Commission (NHC), nearly half of the 3 billion doses administered globally. But the NHC did not reveal how many people were fully vaccinated. Feng Duojia, President of the China Vaccine Industry Association, said it would be possible for China to achieve its 2021 goal of vaccinating 70% of its population. The key in the second half of this year is to ensure as many people as possible get fully vaccinated, he said.
China has opened vaccination to minors as of July 1 in order to help build herd immunity. The world's first report of the immunogenicity and safety of a Covid-19 vaccine tested in minors aged 3 to 17 has been published. The vaccine, CoronaVac, is developed by Chinese producer Sinovac. “CoronaVac is well-tolerated in children and adolescents aged 3-17 years, and induces a strong immune response, which is very encouraging. We will carry out further large-scale, multi-ethnic population studies in order to provide valuable data for immunization strategies for children and adolescents,” Gao Qiang, General Manager of Sinovac, said. The trial results were published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal. Given the large population in China and the threat of the delta variant, China's top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan estimated that it will require at least 80% of the Chinese people to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity.
China is researching and developing 71 vaccines against Covid-19 and they are effective against the delta strain, Zhong Nanshan said, making China the country with the largest number of vaccines undergoing research, experts said. Nine of the 71 vaccines have already been put into use. Two were granted World Health Organization (WHO) emergency use, Zhong said as he addressed a graduation ceremony at the Shanghai Tech University. Speaking of the opening of borders, Zhong said as long as the epidemic in one place is not completely under control, the fate of the world is still at stake. We need the joint effort of the whole world to fully control the pandemic.
Ruili, a city in Yunnan province bordering Myanmar, has restricted people’s movements after report?ing three new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases on July 4. No one has been allowed to enter or leave Ruili without good cause since 8 am on July 5. All residents in the district of Jiegao, where the cases have been detected, have been quarantined at home and their health conditions will be monitored every day. The Jiegao Bridge, which leads to Jiegao port on the China-Myanmar border, has been closed.
This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.
