BEIJING (Reuters) – China has given complete doses of COVID-19 vaccines to about 75.6% of its population as of Oct. 23, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on Sunday.
Some 1.068 billion people have now been inoculated with the required dosages, out of a population of 1.412 billion, Mi told a news briefing.
The country has administered a total of 2.245 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of Oct. 23, official data showed.
China is giving people whose last dose was given at least six months ago a booster shot, with priority groups including essential workers, older people and those with weaker immune systems.
China has largely contained the virus in most areas, and the sporadic local outbreaks are tiny compared with those seen in other countries.
However, Mi cautioned on Sunday there is increasing risk that China’s latest outbreak, involving over 100 infections in a week across 11 provincial areas, will spread further.
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Han Xiao and Dominique Patton; Editing by William Mallard and Kim Coghill)
