China is planning to approve its first foreign COVID-19 vaccine before July, several U.S. news outlets, including Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Bloomberg reported, citing sources privy to the matter.

The clinical-trial data of the vaccine made by Germany's BioNTech SE has been under scrutiny, and the domestic distribution of the shot is expected to be given green light within the next ten weeks, WSJ reported.

China reached an agreement for 100 million doses of the two-shot BioNTech vaccine in December, pending approval, the reports said. The deal was made between the German company and China's Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co.

The BioNTech vaccine was co-developed and distributed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE globally, and Fosun Pharma won exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan in March last year. The vaccines have already been rolled out in Hong Kong and Macau.

The BioNTech vaccine is an mRNA vaccine, and China hasn't had such a type of COVID-19 vaccine so far. The mRNA vaccine has been widely used in North America and some European countries and clinical trials have shown that it has an over 90 percent efficacy rate.