What’s new: China’s top epidemic prevention body urged local governments to speed up the process of getting more of the country’s elderly vaccinated against Covid-19, especially seniors above 80 years old.
The authorities also shortened the interval between completing the initial course of vaccines and the first booster shot for the elderly to three months from six, according to a statement released Tuesday afternoon by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council.
The statement also listed six approved booster shot combinations for seniors, including inactivated vaccines, as well as Livzon Pharmaceutical Group Inc.’s recombinant protein vaccine and the world’s first inhaled vaccine developed by CanSino Biologics Inc.. The latter two were approved in September for emergency use as boosters.
What’s more: People over 60 years old, those with underlying chronic diseases, and individuals who have not been vaccinated are considered high-risk groups for developing severe illness from Covid, said Guo Yanhong, a senior National Health Commission (NHC) official, during a separate press conference on Tuesday.
As of Monday, 76.6% of seniors over 80 years old in China have received one vaccine dose while 65.8% have received two shots, according to Xia Gang, an NHC official in charge of immunization services. The numbers for those over 60 stood at 90.68% for one shot and 86.42% for two, which marginally increased from data released around two weeks ago.
China has seen a surge of Covid-19 cases in recent weeks with multiple major cities including Beijing, Guangzhou, and Chongqing battling outbreaks. The country recorded more than 3,500 new confirmed local cases and over 34,000 asymptomatic infections for Monday.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com)
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