China vaccinated more people against coronavirus in 10 days than it did in the first three months of this year, after a handful of locally transmitted cases sharply accelerated what had been a languid pace of inoculations.
The Covid-19 immunisation programme, launched in early January, took almost three months to administer its first 100m doses, after its population showed little interest in being vaccinated in a country where the spread of the virus had been almost entirely halted.
From May 9 to 19, however, the total number of doses administered in China soared by 125m shots, from 324.3m to 449.5m, according to data from the National Health Commission.