China aims to vaccinate at least 70 percent of the target population by the end of 2021. /CFP
More than 800 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across China as of Tuesday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said Wednesday.
The number has continued to rise at an ever-faster rate since China hit the landmark figure of 100 million on March 27.
It only took six days for the number of COVID-19 vaccine shots administered on the Chinese mainland to exceed 800 million doses from 700 million doses and five days from 600 million doses to 700 million doses, the NHC's daily updates showed.
At least 70 percent of the target population in China is expected to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of this year, said Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the NHC, during a recent interview with Xinhua.
South China's Guangdong Province is also speeding up its inoculation pace after the latest COVID-19 resurgence occurred in the country's manufacturing heartland in May.
According to the provincial health commission, as of 6 p.m. on Sunday, over 71.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Guangdong. Of the total, about 70.8 million doses were administered to people aged 18 to 59.
In the eastern Jiangsu Province, the provincial health commission and the Jiangsu branch of the Red Cross Society of China on Tuesday set up a vaccination site at a railway construction site for over 1,000 railway builders.
"Most of us are migrant workers and don't have much vaccination information. This on-site vaccination service has provided great convenience for us," said Wang Yongli, a migrant worker from northeast China's Liaoning Province.
As of Tuesday, over 48.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Jiangsu Province.
Shandong, one of the country's most populous provinces, has administered nearly 56.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of noon on Monday, with the vaccination rate among people over 18 years old exceeding 51 percent.
A total of 20 vaccines have entered clinical trials in China since last year, according to Zheng Zhongwei, an official with the NHC. "China has been taking the lead in terms of the number of vaccines developed," he said.
"With the production capacity of COVID-19 vaccines expected to increase in the second half of this year, Chinese vaccine enterprises and Chinese vaccines will contribute more to the building of a global community of health for all," Zheng said.
Read more: China ramps up COVID-19 vaccination efforts amid mutant strains