China is ramping up its COVID-19 vaccination push, aiming to be twice as fast as the U.S. by pressuring Communist Party members, bank workers and college staff to get shots, as the lagging rollout threatens to undermine the advantage it secured by effectively wiping out the virus.
The inoculation effort has been stepped up markedly in recent weeks, with China now administering an average of 5 million doses a day from less than a million at the start of the year. While a significant increase, that translates to 5 doses for every 100 people, compared to 25 in the U.S. and 56 in Israel, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker.
Like other countries in the Asia Pacific region that have quashed the coronavirus, China is facing significant hurdles in its vaccination drive, as people don’t see the same urgent need to get inoculated as those in places still battling COVID-19. However, the prospect of other countries — particularly geopolitical rivals like the U.S. — achieving herd immunity and reopening their economies and borders sooner is hardening the resolve to speed up vaccinations in China.