China urges ‘Great Wall of Immunity’

“We should face the imminent challenges together,” Mr Wang, who is also a member of the State Council, or cabinet, told the 9th World Peace Forum in Beijing.

The forum has been organised by Tsinghua University since 2012 as a global conference on international security and is not related to the World Peace Forum headquartered since 2006 in Schengen, Luxembourg.

“The most urgent priority is to expedite the construction of the ‘Great Wall of Immunity’ to fend off the virus, surpass political discrimination and carry out international anti-pandemic cooperation.”

China has so far supplied more than 480 million vaccine doses to other nations.

Wang said it would keep working to improve the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries.

By Friday, China had recorded 103,825 cases of coronavirus with 4,847 deaths and administered a total of 1.28 billion doses of vaccine — more than a third of the world’s total — according to Johns Hopkins University data. The Foreign Minister’s comments came as South Africa approved China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, according to Minister of Health Mamoloko Kubayi. The country faces a crippling third wave of infections that has paralysed hospitals and brought its death toll to 60,000 from nearly 2,020,000 cases.

Just over 5 per cent of South Africans have been vaccinated — or 3.3 million people out of a population of just less than 60 million.

It has recorded 2 million cases so far, although low testing rates in rural areas mean the real figure is certainly higher, health experts say. – NDTV