COVID-19: China is vaccinating 20m people a day

 For more than a week, an average of about 20 million people has been vaccinated against COVID-19 every day in China. At this rate, the nation would have fully vaccinated the entire UK population in about six days. 

China now accounts for more than half of the 35 million or so people around the world receiving a COVID-19 shot each day.

Zoltán Kis, a chemical engineer in the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub at Imperial College London, doesn’t know of “anything even close to those production scales” for a vaccine. “The manufacturing efforts required in China to reach this high production throughput are tremendous,” he says.

The majority of doses are of one of CoronaVac — produced by Beijing-based company Sinovac — showed an efficacy of 51 percent against symptoms of COVID-19 in clinical trials, and much higher protection against severe disease and death. The second jab was developed in Beijing by state-owned firm Sinopharm and has demonstrated an efficacy of 79 percent against symptomatic disease and hospitalization.

China’s current vaccine production rate could potentially make a significant dent in global demand, says Kis; that would be “a huge step in reducing the healthcare and economic burden of the COVID-19 pandemic”. 

China has already supplied 350 million doses of the two vaccines to more than 75 nations, and WHO approval should now trigger further distribution of both vaccines to low-income countries.

“China’s vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, but has rapidly picked up pace,” says Rongjun Chen, a biomaterials scientist also at the Future Vaccine Manufacturing Research Hub. As recently as mid-April, China was administering only about five million doses a day.

An official at China’s National Health Commission, said the nation aims to produce some three billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 — and up to five billion per year after that.

To achieve such high production rates, many things need to go according to plan across the entire production and distribution chain, from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing active ingredients, filling vials and distributing doses to vaccination centres, says Kis. “It is crucial that everything arrives at the right location at the right time.”

Both CoronaVac and the Sinopharm vaccine are made from the inactivated virus. Scientists say that vaccines of this type require more time and effort to produce than do COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA technology, such as the Pfizer or Moderna shots. To produce killed virus, manufacturers first need to grow it in living cells in large bioreactors, which can take months, explains Kis.

To achieve its massive gains, China probably leveraged its existing capacity for manufacturing inactivated-virus vaccines against other diseases, including influenza and hepatitis A, says Jin Dong-Yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong.

As of 6 June, China had administered 778 million doses to its population of about 1.4 billion people. At the current rate, it could fully vaccinate its whole population in around three months.

MERCK Foundation, ARCS partner to build fertility care capacity, advocacy in Africa

Merck Foundation and the Africa Reproductive Care Services, ARCS,  are partnering to build advocacy to break the stigma of infertility through awareness about infertility prevention and male infertility in Africa as part of Merck Foundation More than a Mother campaign.

Announcing the partnership, the CEO of Merck Foundation/President of Merck More Than a Mother, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej,  said it was a delight to partner with an important and inclusive Society like Africa Reproductive Care Society with the aim not to only provide scientific and clinics training to African doctors and embryologists but to also build advocacy to break the stigma of infertility and raise awareness about infertility prevention, management, and male infertility. 

“We at Merck Foundation partnered with 20 African First Ladies, Ministries of Health, Information, Education, Communication and Genders, Academia, Media & Art communities to achieve our goals to transform the landscape of fertility care in Africa, and we have achieved very important milestones. 

“I believe with our new partnership with ARCS we will continue our efforts and address different aspects of this topic”.

Also expressing elation at the partnership, the President of the ARCS, Prof Oladapo Ashiru, stated: “Merck Foundation has been creating awareness and building fertility care capacity in Africa. It is very critical to create awareness around infertility prevention and management as around 85 percent of infertility cases in Africa are caused by untreated infectious diseases, hence are preventable in many cases. 

“I also thank Merck Foundation CEO, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej for her energy, inspiration, and innovations. Together will do well for Africa.

“I invite all fertility care experts and embryologists, media experts, fashion designers who are our Merck Foundation Alumni to join this society. 

“Also, I invite policymakers, community leaders and members, singers and filmmakers to apply for the membership which is free and inclusive for all Africa”, Senator, Dr. Rasha Kelej added.

The partnership was announced during the 8th edition of Merck Foundation Africa Asia Luminary during the Fertility and Reproductive care session, where they provided scientific and medical training for more than 400 doctors from Africa and Asia. And, discussed challenges, strategies, and solutions to improve access to quality, equitable and regulated fertility care in Africa and Asia.

With “Merck Foundation More Than a Mother”, we have initiated a cultural shift to de-stigmatise infertility at all levels: By improving awareness, training local experts in the fields of fertility care and media, building advocacy in cooperation with African First Ladies and women leaders and by supporting childless women in starting their own small businesses. It’s all about giving every woman the respect and the help she deserves to live a fulfilling life, with or without a child. 

Ashiru said ARCS aims to be the foremost contributor and the partner of choice in advancing the ART care solutions and advocating for improving access to regulated and equitable fertility care solutions and breaking the stigma around infertility in Africa with a special focus on Sub- Saharan Africa.