Reuters, Beijing

China yesterday said it has joined a global Covid-19 vaccine initiative co-led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), becoming the 170th country and biggest economy to date to support equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines to rich and poor countries alike.

“This is fantastic news, which gives even more momentum to our efforts to ensure global, equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of the GAVI vaccine alliance.

Covax is co-led by the GAVI vaccines alliance, the WHO and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

The move means China “will be procuring vaccines through the facility for a proportion of their own population, just as with other countries that have joined”, a GAVI spokesman said.

“Vaccine deals are underway and we are fast approaching our initial fundraising target to jumpstart support for lower-income countries,” Dr Berkley told Reuters in a statement.

“What seemed like an impossible challenge just a few months ago – ensuring every country, rich or poor, gets equitable, rapid access to Covid-19 vaccines – is now becoming a reality.”

The move by China, where the new coronavirus was first reported, comes as it holds separate talks with the WHO to have its locally produced Covid-19 vaccines assessed for international use.

China will purchase Covid-19 vaccines for 1 per cent of its population, or 15 million people, via a global scheme backed by the World Health Organisation, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

The first batch of vaccine available under the plan will be in short supply, so there would be less for other countries if China had secured doses for a large number of its 1.4 billion people, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing.

China has at least four experimental vaccines in the final stage of clinical trials – two are developed by state-backed China National Biotec Group (CNBG), and the remaining two are from Sinovac Biotech and CanSino Biologics, respectively. It is in talks with the WHO to have its domestically made vaccines assessed for international use.

China joins some 168 countries that have already announced their participation in Covax including 76 wealthy, self-financing ones. But neither the United States nor Russia have joined the programme.

The Covax facility aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021.