COVID-19 vaccination begins for people older than 60

Some regions in China have started vaccinating people who are more than 60 years old and in good health, and research and development on vaccines for the elderly is speeding up, a senior health official said on March 21.

"We will start mass vaccination of the elderly after we get sufficient data from clinical trials on the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines," said He Qinghua, an official at the National Health Commission.

As introduced by He, China will gradually increase the scale of its mass COVID-19 vaccination in a safe and orderly way.

The free vaccination will be carried out based on the risks of infection to different groups and requires approval of individuals, He said.

Some people might think it is not urgent for them to get vaccinated as China has successfully controlled the epidemic, yet it is still raging globally and no one can stay detached from the world, He said.

"Vaccination is the most effective way to control the epidemic, I hope the public can get vaccinated quickly," He said.

Mao Junfeng, an official at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said China has steadily increased the production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines and the annual production capacity can meet the vaccination demand of all people in the country.

Enterprises must put the effectiveness and safety of vaccines as the top priority while increasing their production capacity, he added.