New year, new outbreak: China rushes to vaccinate 50 million as holiday looms - The Guardian

“I feel it’s safe because so many people around the country have taken the vaccine so there shouldn’t be any major problems,” she tells the Guardian.

Wang is one of 50 million people that China aims to vaccinate against Covid-19 in just a matter of weeks in one of the most ambitious vaccination drives on earth.

A health commission official, Wang Bin, said on Wednesday 10m doses had been administered so far, including about 1.6 million people under an emergency regime before full approvals were issued.

Health experts told state media last week the current rate was likely to reach just 20 million people by deadline, but producers are speeding up production.

Calvin Ho, an associate professor of law at Hong Kong university focusing on bioethics, said the 3.5% drive wasn’t expected to produce herd immunity – health authorities have said their eventual aim is for about 60-70% vaccination coverage – but it will give some protection as people gather for the new year.

The 50.38% overall efficacy pushes the vaccine just over the 50% World Health Organisation benchmark for approval, but falls below the 78% announced last week and well below the efficacy rates of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

Associate professor James Trauer, the head of epidemiological modelling at Monash University’s school of public health, said in countries like China which have had a relatively small epidemic (since Wuhan’s was contained), achieving herd immunity through vaccination was “critical”.

On Tuesday, about a dozen people queued for a vaccine check-in at the Shenzhen Bao’an traditional Chinese medicine hospital group office, one of five official vaccination locations in the south China megacity.

“I would encourage people who travel a lot, regardless of within or outside the country, to take the vaccine