China to provide 10 million doses of vaccines to COVAX

China has officially joined the global vaccine sharing initiative COVAX and is in close communication with the World Health Organization and other sponsors of the plan, said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a daily news briefing on Feb 3.

China is working together with the sponsors to make vaccines a global public good and to ensure vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries, said Wang. 

He said that China attaches great importance to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' call to vaccinate priority populations in all nations within the first 100 days of this year, and also to the difficulties facing the practical implementation of COVAX, in particular the huge vaccine supply gap in February and March. 

At the request of the WHO, China has decided to provide 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to COVAX, mainly to meet the urgent need in developing countries. This is another important measure taken by China to promote equitable distribution of vaccines, advance international cooperation in fighting the pandemic, and apply the vision of a global community of health for all.

The WHO has started to review the authorization for emergency use of the Chinese vaccines. The Chinese enterprises involved will continue to cooperate actively, said Wang, adding that China hopes that the review process will be completed as soon as possible.

" We hope that countries, with the capacity to do so, will take actions to actively support COVAX and the work of the WHO, help developing countries access vaccines in a timely manner, and make their due contributions to mankind's early victory over the pandemic," Wang said.