March 10, 2021
While China’s Covid-19 vaccines are helping a number of countries carry out mass vaccination, its own rollout of the shots seems to be proceeding relatively slowly.
China administered 53 million doses to citizens as of Feb. 28, according to Zhong Nanshan, one of China’s most prominent epidemic experts. While that doesn’t seem a low number, it only covers around 3.6% (link in Chinese) of its 1.3 billion citizens. In comparison, the US has administered more than 90 million doses, covering around 18% of its people, while the UK has given around 22 million first doses or nearly 30% of the population.
For sure, China’s massive population is a major factor in its low share of coverage, but there are other elements at play too. China’s early success in containing the virus is, ironically, one of them. Despite being the epicenter of the pandemic in early 2020, the country now reports new cases only in the single digits, and life in China has basically come back to normal with citizens free to move around and socialize with others.