People receive COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site in Gulou District of Nanjing, east China's Jiangsu Province, April 9, 2021. Photo: Xinhua

More than 80 percent of people surveyed in China said they are willing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the result of a poll released on "China Prophylactic Vaccination Day," saying that the respondents' willingness to be inoculated against COVID-19 is higher than for other vaccines. 

The poll, conducted by Guangzhou-based Southern Weekly and DXY, one of China's largest online healthcare  platforms, questioned 12,674 people, of whom 622 are doctors.

Around 81 percent of respondents said they are willing to get a COVID-19 jab, then followed by hepatitis B, HPV and flu vaccines, according to the survey. 

The survey shows that 85 percent respondents believe vaccines prevent disease, a sharp increase from the number last year in another survey, which was as low as 47 percent.

China is ramping up vaccination efforts, with more than 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines administrated so far, National Health Commission spokesperson Mi Feng said on April 21. 

This puts China on par with the US in terms of vaccines administered, with the latter also hitting 200 million vaccine shot milestone last week. Yet due to the huge population gap between the two countries, the relative percentage of the population vaccinated in China still lags behind the US. 

Scientists are confident about China's vaccination speed. Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert told the Global Times that he estimates China will realize herd immunity by the end of this year.

World Health Organization experts estimate that at least 65-70 percent of a population needs to be fully vaccinated before herd immunity is reached.

By the end of March, China had the capacity to administer more than 6 million doses per day. Shao Yiming, an immunologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention previously said that China is capable of inoculating more than 10 million people once vaccine production is elevated. 

The US COVID-19 vaccine program reached 3 million doses a day in early April, according to Cyrus Shahpar, COVID-19 data director on the White House Response Team.

China's COVID-19 vaccine production is also gearing up. "China plans to produce over 3 billion COVID-19 vaccines by the end of this year. Capacity can reach around 5 billion doses this year," Zheng Zhongwei, director of the Development Center for Medical Science and Technology of the National Health Commission, said at the 2021 Boao Forum for Asia last week.