Over 400 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines have now been administered in China, according to the National Health Commission -- more than in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany combined.
Of course, 400 million doses doesn't even cover half of China's population of 1.4 billion people, but the vaccination rate is speeding up. Chinese authorities announced the first 100 million people had been vaccinated on March 27. After that, it took another 26 days to reach 200 million, and then 17 days to hit 300 million.
The latest 100 million doses were given in just nine days.
Anhui and Liaoning provinces have both seen a large spike in vaccinations over the past two weeks, following small local outbreaks of Covid-19 -- 17 and 25 cases, respectively.
But that was all it took for Anhui to inoculate more than 1.1 million people in a day on May 16. The province's average daily vaccination was more than 840,000 in the past week.
In Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, there have been more than 100,000 vaccinations a day since May 12, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
The impact of the new outbreaks has also been felt nationwide: on Friday alone, 14 million people were vaccinated across China, days after the news broke of cases in Anhui and Liaoning.
And in Beijing, almost 80% of those age 18 and over have now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the state-run Global Times said this week, bringing the capital close to the coveted goal of achieving herd immunity.
The fear factor isn't just at work in China.
Taiwan, which has particularly low rates of both Covid-19 transmission and vaccination take up, placed its capital Taipei under partial lockdown this week, after hundreds of new local cases were detected.
That has led to a scramble to get vaccinated among its population, suggesting that the best solution to vaccine hesitancy may be the one governments want least.
Source: Daily Advent
Image Source: Getty Images
