BEIJING/SHANGHAI -- China's National Health Commission announced Wednesday that over 1.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the country through Tuesday, corresponding to almost the entire population.
Some regional authorities are giving special items to people for getting the shots in an effort to expand the vaccination rollout.
The vaccination program for the general public in China started in February. The number of doses administered exceeded 100 million on March 27. It took 25 more days for the figure to reach 200 million, and then 16 more days to 300 million. After that, it took from four to nine days for the figure to increase in increments of 100 million doses.
Currently, the daily tally of new infection cases in all of China has been around 20 to 30.
In late May, more than 200 people were infected in Guangdong Province, an area with a high concentration of travelers from overseas. The delta variant of the novel coronavirus -- a type first confirmed in India that is more contagious than the original form of the virus -- was detected there.
According to a diplomatic source in Beijing, the incident made the general public widely aware of the risk of an infection resurgence and people became more keen to get vaccinated.
The Chinese-made vaccines can be stored in a conventional refrigerator at a temperature of 2 C to 8 C, making it easy for the authorities to implement large-scale vaccination programs across the country.
Some data has shown that the Chinese-made vaccines have lower effectiveness than vaccines made in the United States and Europe. It may be that the authorities are eager to inoculate as many people as possible for that reason.
Various efforts have been made to expand the vaccination rollout. In Shanghai, people who get the shots were given tickets to amusement parks and food such as milk or eggs. In Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, there was a lottery among people who were inoculated and winners were given smartphones or vouchers to stay at luxury hotels.
"Authorities seem to have imposed a quota on each workplace to increase the number of people vaccinated," said another diplomatic source.
In some areas, people who are not vaccinated are prohibited from entering public facilities.
As of Wednesday, these restrictions were in place in 44 regions in 12 provinces, including Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. Local authorities were checking people 18 or older whether they had been vaccinated at the entrances of facilities such as schools, supermarkets and mass transit. People who had not been vaccinated were denied entry.
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