China Encourages COVID-19 Vaccination, Saying "Almost No Side Effects"

by Kim Dongpyo

Published 29 May.2021 11:52(KST)

Authorities Release First Statistics on Side Effect Cases
"31,434 Cases Among 265 Million Vaccinations"

On the 14th, when a new COVID-19 case due to community transmission occurred again in China after about 20 days, medical staff in Lu'an, Anhui Province, collected samples from residents for nucleic acid testing. The Anhui Provincial Health Commission (Weiguanwei) announced that one confirmed case was reported in each of the two cities, Hefei and Lu'an.

China, accelerating COVID-19 vaccinations, has confirmed that there are almost no cases of vaccine side effects and is encouraging people to get vaccinated.

According to Chinese media such as People's Daily (人民日報) and Global Times (環球時報) on the 29th, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced that from December 15 last year to April 30 this year, 314,340 cases of side effects were reported out of 265 million vaccine doses administered.

This is the first time the Chinese government has disclosed side effect cases related to its domestic vaccines.

By type of side effect, common side effects such as fever and swelling accounted for 82.96%, while abnormal reactions such as allergies accounted for 17.04%.

The CDC explained that this corresponds to 11.86 side effect cases per 100,000 doses, which is lower than the side effect rate reported after the 2019 flu vaccine administration.

China has set a goal to achieve herd immunity by vaccinating 70 to 80% of its 1.4 billion population by the end of this year to ensure the successful hosting of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and is promoting vaccination accordingly.

Recently, following Anhui (安徽) Province, new COVID-19 cases have emerged in Liaoning (遼寧) Province, creating an atmosphere of vigorously encouraging the administration of domestically produced vaccines.