Despite challenges, hope remains in 2021 COVID-19 fight

BEIJING, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The fight against COVID-19 this year is full of twists and turns. New and cunning variants are fast spreading.

A vaccine divide is growing between rich nations and poor ones. Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases and deaths are on the rise.

By Tuesday, more than 270 million cases were reported. Deaths from the virus have surpassed 5.3 million.

But there is still hope.

Apart from the speedy development and approvement of COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 medicines are also being produced. Multilateral programs such as COVAX are also helping promote global vaccine equity.

Official data showed that COVAX has so far shipped over 792 million COVID-19 vaccines to 144 participants.

China has supplied over 70 million doses and donated 100 million U.S. dollars to this global initiative.

Officials and health experts worldwide urge the international community to strengthen solidarity and cooperation to fight the pandemic.