China has provided over 1.8 bln COVID-19 vaccine doses to international community

BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) -- To date, China has provided over 1.8 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations.

China has delivered on its promise to make vaccines global public goods, and made continued efforts to improve vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries.

China has pledged to strive to provide a total of 2 billion vaccine doses to the world by the end of this year, and said that in addition to donating 100 million U.S. dollars to COVAX, it would donate 100 million vaccine doses to other developing countries in the course of this year.

As of Nov. 12, China has supplied more than 70 million vaccine doses to COVAX and is conducting joint vaccine production with 19 developing countries.

At the recent ASEAN-China Special Summit to Commemorate the 30th Anniversary of ASEAN-China Dialogue Relations, China said that it is ready to work with ASEAN member states to jointly build a "health shield" for the region.

Under this initiative, China is ready to donate an additional 150 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to ASEAN member states, contribute an additional 5 million U.S. dollars to the COVID-19 ASEAN Response Fund, and step up joint vaccine production and technology transfers.