Germany Sends First Batch of Foreign COVID Vaccines to China

Germany Sends First Batch of Foreign COVID Vaccines to China a  representative for the German government confirmed on Wednesday that Berlin has dispatched the first batch of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations to China. This is the first time a coronavirus vaccination has been shipped from outside the country. China agreed to enable German nationals residing in the country to receive the shot as well.

Deliveries arrive as Beijing relaxes its “zero-COVID” policy of lockdowns, resulting in an increase in cases that have overwhelmed an already overburdened healthcare system.

No information was provided regarding the size or timing of the shipment, but a spokesperson for Berlin did say that the city is lobbying for the roughly 20,000 non-Germans to get access to the vaccination if they choose it.

Scholz had pushed Beijing to also grant free access to the shot to Chinese citizens. In a letter to German residents living in mainland China, the government announced that it will provide free vaccinations and booster doses for those over the age of 12 using EU-approved vaccines.

Family members of people from other nationalities would not be eligible to receive the vaccination. Moreover, children under the age of 12 may be vaccinated at a later time. “We are working on the possibility that besides Germans also other foreigners can be vaccinated with BioNTech,” the spokesperson said to journalists in Berlin.

Germany’s embassy and businesses in China will receive the vaccines, and discussions are underway with other EU governments to make the vaccines available to citizens of other nationalities as well.

It’s up to China to decide whether vaccine access would be expanded beyond German nationals. If the decision is made in the favor of other nationalities, Chinese citizens residing in Europe would be able to get vaccinated with China’s Sinovac.

This remark follows news earlier this month that the German health ministry had authorized the importation of China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine for administration to Chinese nationals living in Germany. Although the European Union’s drugs regulating agency has not given the shot the go-ahead, the World Health Organization has.

Beijing has previously insisted on utilizing only locally made vaccinations that are not based on mRNA technology made in the West but instead on more local techniques.

China has more COVID vaccinations approved for use than any other country- totaling nine.

However, none has been upgraded to target the highly transmissible Omicron strain, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have for boosters in many economically advanced nations. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s shots are the most extensively utilized around the world.

BioNTech and Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical entered into a partnership at the outset of the pandemic to ensure a steady supply of vaccines throughout mainland China. Even though the injections are already widely available in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the regulatory evaluation for mainland China is still ongoing.

BioNTech claimed that the decision was outside its control and offered no explanation for the delay.

China’s zero-COVID stance and lockdown efforts have maintained low mortality and infection rates over the last months but at the expense of severe disruptions to domestic and international trade and supply networks.