1.07 billion fully jabbed in China; US gives nod for kids’ shots

Mainland China recorded 59 new local Covid-19 transmissions on Friday (October 29), its highest number of daily new cases since September 16 as the centre and provincial health authorities battle the outbreak.

China has fully vaccinated 1.07bn of its 1.41bn population against Covid-19, the national health commission (NHC) said on Saturday as health authorities scramble to contain the latest outbreak that has spread to 14 provinces.

Infections were reported in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Beijing and Ningxia. (AFP)

Mainland China recorded 59 new local Covid-19 transmissions on Friday (October 29), its highest number of daily new cases since September 16 as the centre and provincial health authorities battle the outbreak.

Infections were reported in Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Beijing and Ningxia.

The epidemic prevention and control situation is grim and complicated as infections are still spreading rapidly, Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the NHC, said on Saturday.

China’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan, however, was quoted as saying by the Xinhua news agency that the country will be able to effectively contain the latest Covid-19 resurgence within a month.

Meanwhile, the United States on Friday authorised the Pfizer Covid vaccine for children aged five-to-11, paving the way for 28mn young Americans to soon get immunised.

The decision came after a high-level medical panel advising the government this week endorsed the shots, ruling that the known benefits outweighed the risks of side-effects.

The US follows only a handful of countries including China, Chile, Cuba and the UAE that are inoculating younger children with various vaccines.

New coronavirus restrictions came into effect across Russia on Saturday with authorities looking to stem soaring infections and deaths in Europe’s worst hit country by fatalities.

Saturday’s tally recorded 40,251 cases, the highest for new infections since the beginning of the pandemic.

President Vladimir Putin last week ordered a paid holiday from Saturday to November 7 in a bid to break a recent chain of records in daily cases and deaths.

With inputs from agencies