China has provided 770 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 100 countries and international organizations as of August 4, according to a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA).

The vaccines have been donated, exported or jointly produced, benefiting hundreds of millions of people worldwide, said Wang Xiaolong, director-general of the Department of International Economic Affairs of MOFA, during a video meeting with international journalists on August 6.

"The amount of vaccine doses that China has provided to other countries equals over 45 percent of the doses it has administered domestically," he said, according to a news release published on the website of MOFA on Tuesday.

At the first meeting of the International Forum on COVID-19 Vaccine Cooperation on August 5, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a written message that China would strive to provide 2 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world throughout this year and offer $100 million to COVAX, a UN-backed global facility to ensure equitable access to vaccines.

The pledge means China is willing to provide effective and safe vaccines to nearly 10 percent of the global population outside the country while meeting its domestic vaccination needs, Wang said.

It also shows China's firm commitment to making COVID-19 vaccines a public good and promoting the building of a global community of health for all, which will surely provide strong support for the global fight against the pandemic, he added.

Since the approval of conditional marketing of COVID-19 vaccines in the country, China has been supplying vaccines to other countries at their request. It provided the first batch of vaccine aid on February 1, 2021.

For many developing countries, the Chinese vaccines were the first batch of vaccines they got, and also the only ones available for them for a long time thereafter.

Wang stressed that China would prioritize vaccine supply to developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. So far, over 90 percent of the vaccines provided by China have gone to these countries, he said.

China has donated vaccines to over 80 countries and international organizations, more than one-third of which are in Africa. Chinese vaccine aid was also the first to reach war-torn countries, such as Afghanistan and Syria, according to Wang.