Coronavirus | China steps up vaccinations to 14 million a day

There is a renewed push to vaccinate people after resurgence of COVID-19 cases in several local clusters

China’s health authority said the country had administered more than 400 million doses of vaccines as of Sunday amid a renewed push to guard against the resurgence of COVID-19 cases after the reporting of several local clusters in recent days. A record 14 million doses were administered on a single day on Sunday, the National Health Commission said. This follows a stepped up vaccination campaign that saw the last 100 million doses administered in just nine days, down from 17 days for doses to rise from 200 million to 300 million and 26 days from 100 million to 200 million. China’s vaccination campaign was slow to take off, attributed by experts to a combination of hesitancy and a broader lack of urgency because of the low number of COVID-19 cases in China, which has managed to suppress outbreaks since last summer after months-long lockdown and continued restrictions on international travel that remain in place.