What’s new: Shanghai has become the first city in China to announce plans to start providing Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccinations to foreign residents.
According to a statement released Tuesday, from March 29 onward foreigners in the metropolis will be able to apply via the city’s Health Cloud app to receive the vaccinations, which will be free for those enrolled in the country’s medical insurance system. For those not enrolled, the vaccines will cost 100 yuan ($15.38) per dose.
The statement did not mention any requirements for those applying, such as their age.
The background: China had administered nearly 75 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the end of Saturday.
Zhang Wenhong, director of the infectious disease department at Shanghai’s Huashan Hospital, has warned that China may see further infections if it doesn’t roll out inoculations quickly.
On Saturday, he told a forum in Shanghai that China would need to vaccinate 80% of its population to reach herd immunity, higher than the usually mentioned 70% threshold. “A 90% vaccination rate is an important threshold for epidemic control, but 80% is the minimum requirement,” he said.
Contact editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
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