Beijing steps up vaccine production

Beijing has gone all out to boost the production of COVID-19 vaccines, with the combined annual capacity of Sinopharm and Sinovac in the Chinese capital expected to reach up to 3 billion doses within the year.

"We are accelerating the construction of new vaccine production lines and aiming to achieve an annual capacity of 2 billion doses in the first half of this year," said Liu Peicheng, director of brand and public relations at Sinovac Life Sciences.

Sinovac rolled out its first COVID-19 vaccine production line in August, with an annual capacity of 500 million doses. Its second production line began operation in February, pushing the company's annual capacity to over 1 billion doses of vaccine.

No abnormalities related to the vaccine have been detected, Liu said, adding that the incidence of adverse reactions to vaccines among the elderly was similar to that in younger adults, with both relatively low.

Sinopharm bioscience subsidiary China National Biotec Group has vowed to attain an annual capacity of 1 billion doses within the year, and up to 3 billion in the near future.

China National Biotec Group said it has actively participated in international cooperation on vaccines and is striving to provide safe, effective, accessible and affordable vaccines for all countries through the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative.

Sinopharm vaccines have been rolled out in more than 40 countries and regions, and have been recognized by the international community for their safety, effectiveness, population universality, accessibility and convenience in storage and transportation.

Daily production has increased from 1.5 million doses on Feb 1 to about 5 million, with a total of more than 100 million doses supplied across the country, Industry and Information Technology Minister Xiao Yaqing said.

He said the quality and safety of COVID-19 vaccines should always come first and be placed at the forefront of production and supply.

China has approved four vaccines against COVID-19 for conditional marketing and another vaccine for emergency use.

Beijing had inoculated 8.7 million people by Wednesday, with 5.28 million completing the two-shot regimen, taking the number of doses of domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines administered in the capital to 13.9 million.

According to officials, the city is capable of administering 300,000 doses a day.

Xinhua