China aims to vaccinate 50 million people against COVID-19 before the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts mid-February, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported on Friday.
The Hong Kong-based paper said that officials from centres for disease control and prevention across the country participated on Wednesday in a televised training meeting to prepare for the mass inoculations of high-risk groups.
The central government is planning to distribute 100 million doses of the two-dose inactivated vaccines made by Chinese firms Sinovac and Sinopharm before Feb. 5, according to a health specialist with knowledge of the meeting.
The measure aims to prevent the spread of the disease during the holiday, which usually sees hundreds of millions of people travel home to be with their families.
China has managed to contain the virus through population tracking, mass testing and border closures.
Occasional outbreaks now occur, but they are quickly contained.
Those who will be inoculated first include health workers, policemen, firefighters, customs officers, cargo and logistics workers, nursing home staff and utility workers, according to the newspaper.
Vaccinations for the general public are expected to start after the Lunar New Year. (dpa/NAN)