China administers one-billionth Covid shot

CHINA yesterday announced it had administered its one-billionth shot in the world’s biggest coronavirus inoculation drive as Brazil’s death toll from the pandemic passed 500 000.

The global Covid-19 death toll is now more than 3.8 million. Many nations are still battling outbreaks, but vaccine drives in some countries are allowing activities, unthinkable a few months ago.

China’s vaccine milestone comes after the number of shots administered globally passed 2.5 billion on Friday.

But the Asian giant’s vaccination efforts initially got off to a slow start after a successful fight against the virus left little sense of urgency to get jabbed. A lack of transparency and previous vaccine scandals have also led to resistance among many residents.

Authorities have set an target of fully vaccinating 40 % of China’s nearly 1.4 billion people by the end of this month. China’s success against the virus stands in stark contrast to Brazil, which on Saturday became the second nation after the US to surpass half a million Covid-19 deaths.

Vaccination efforts have been slow – only 11% of the Brazilian population is inoculated, as a third wave of infections spreads through the nation.

Far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who previously hit out at vaccines, has promised to immunise the entire population by the end of the year – something specialists consider unlikely.

He has been criticised for downplaying the illness from the outset, opposing-lockdown measures and plugging unproven medical treatments.

On Saturday, thousands of Brazilians again took to the streets to protest against his handling of the pandemic.

In India, there were also fears that people were not taking the Covid threat seriously enough, just a few weeks after crematoriums were operating around the clock dealing with virus victims. Doctors are worried that India is letting its guard down again too early as shopping malls and markets buzz with customers once more.

One shopper at a New Delhi mall said she was “fed up being cooped up. The coronavirus is not going any time soon, so learn to live with it”. The pandemic is also casting a shadow over the Tokyo Olympics. A Uganda Olympic team member tested positive on arrival in Japan on Saturday, officials said. It was the first positive Covid test among Olympic arrivals from overseas.