China's vaccination against COVID-19 now at "staggering" pace: media

BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- China is now vaccinating its citizens "at a staggering pace" with an average of about 19 million shots per day, said a recent report of The Associated Press (AP), citing the rolling seven-day average of Our World in Data, an online research site.

"That would mean a dose for everyone in Italy about every three days. The United States, with about one-quarter of China's population, reached around 3.4 million shots per day in April when its drive was at full tilt," the report said.

China's total number of inoculations is roughly a third of the 1.9 billion shots distributed globally, the AP quoted Our World in Data as saying.

The speed, the report noted, was reached due to calls for getting vaccinated from "every corner of society," including companies, schools and local governments.

It also mentioned that China has vaccinated more than 500,000 overseas citizens through its "Spring Sprout" program, which is designed to help inoculate Chinese nationals abroad with Chinese vaccines.