Chinese mainland administers 2.6 bln COVID-19 vaccine doses

The Chinese mainland had administered more than 2.60 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Saturday, according to the latest data released by the National Health Commission on Sunday.

Specifically, a total of 2,602,703,000 vaccine doses had been administered in the 31 provincial-level regions and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, according to the commission.

Beijing had administered 54,134,300 doses on more than 22,272,600 residents as of Saturday, according to the municipal health commission.

The country has been expanding vaccine inoculation, booster shots in particular, to combat COVID-19 and build an immune barrier as the coronavirus continues to wreck havoc worldwide.

Meanwhile, the vaccination programs for children aged three to 11 as well as for the elderly over 60 years old are also underway across the country.

In Yangxi County, south China’s Guangdong Province, medical workers offered vaccination service at kindergartens.

Local authorities of north China’s Shanxi Province have stepped up efforts to vaccinate children aged three to 11 since early November based on voluntary informed consent.

So far, more than 80 percent of children aged three to 11 in Gaoping City of Shanxi has received the first dose and the vaccination of the second dose for them is underway.

The Chinese mainland reported 49 locally transmitted confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, mostly in east China’s Zhejiang Province, said the National Health Commission on Sunday.