Majority of people over 60 have been vaccinated

About 212 million of all 264 million Chinese seniors age 60 and above have been fully vaccinated, a leading health expert said on Friday at a news conference.

Wang Huaqing, chief immunization expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, also reassured the public that there is no data to support the speculation that seniors age 80 and above have a higher chance of experiencing adverse effects from inoculation.

He said common side effects of vaccination include fever, headache and pain at the injection site, but most of the time do not require medical intervention. In extremely rare cases, a vaccine recipient may have anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction.

This condition typically occurs within 30 minutes after inoculation, and health workers at vaccination sites are well prepared to handle it should it occur, he said.

Wang also said that since many elderly people have underlying diseases, they should postpone vaccination if their diseases are acute, or they can consult a doctor for specific advice.

Lei Zhenglong, deputy head of the Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control of the National Health Commission, said full vaccination can effectively reduce hospitalization, severe cases and fatalities caused by COVID-19, therefore it is still one of the key measures in the fight against the pandemic.

Due to many people having underlying health conditions, seniors have a higher chance of becoming severely ill and dying from COVID-19 compared to other age groups. As a result, it is imperative for people to get vaccinated and have booster shots, he said, adding that more than 138 million people age 60 and above had received booster shots.

As of Thursday, China had administered over 3.24 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, and more than 1.24 billion people had been fully vaccinated, accounting for 88 percent of the population.

More than 671 million people had received booster vaccines, of which over 12 million had received heterologous vaccination, meaning their booster shot uses a different type of vaccine compared to their initial jabs, Lei said.