[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Choyoung] China has surpassed 1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine administration. However, concerns about the efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines are rising as hundreds of medical staff vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine have tested positive, leading to a series of infection cases.
According to Xinhua News Agency on the 20th, the National Health Commission of China (NHC) announced that the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered within the mainland reached 1,010,489,000 as of the previous day.
China plans to complete vaccination for 40% of its total population of 1.4 billion by the end of this month and finish vaccinating 70% by the end of the year to build a "COVID-19 Great Wall."
So far, China has been vaccinating individuals aged 18 and older, and since the 4th of this month, emergency use approval has been granted for those aged 3 to 17, expanding the vaccination target to infants and students.
However, controversy over the efficacy of Chinese-made vaccines is growing.
Currently, China mainly uses four types of vaccines, centered on those produced by Sinopharm and Sinovac.
Both Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines have received emergency use authorization from the World Health Organization, but the prevention rates are about 79% for Sinopharm and 51% for Sinovac.
Recently, in a region of Indonesia, over 350 medical workers vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine showed asymptomatic infection cases.
Amid this, with the recent discovery of variant viruses, there are forecasts that even with increased vaccination rates in China, cases of breakthrough infections may rise.
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