China administers COVID-19 vaccine far faster than the US

The Chinese mainland has administered more than 600 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday, and with an ever-accelerating speed, it took China only five days to bring the number from 500 million to 600 million. Since the Chinese mainland administered the first 100 million doses on March 27, the pace of the world's largest vaccination drive has been accelerated constantly. Finishing the second 100 million doses took China only 25 days, but the sixth 100 million only took five days, according to figures released by the National Health Commission (NHC). Since May 12, more than 10 million doses have been administered every day in China, and on May 26, the daily number rose to 20 million. The US has only administered around 1.4 million doses on a daily basis in the past few days. According to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US administered 292.1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine as of Friday, and the number on Thursday was 290.7 million doses. China's top respiratory disease specialist Zhong Nanshan said on Friday that China needs to inoculate 80 percent of its residents in order to develop herd immunity, the China News Service reported on Saturday. Zhong said vaccine coverage will reach 40 percent by early July, and will reach 80 percent by the end of this year. He urged Chinese vaccine developers to further expand annual production capacity.