Photo: VCG

China is accelerating its speed in administering COVID-19 vaccines as daily vaccinations edged close to 14 million doses amid an epidemic flareup.

The Global Times sorted out the official data and found that it took 25 days for total COVID-19 vaccinations to rise from 100 million to 200 million, 16 days to jump from 200 million to 300 million, and only 9 days for overall administered doses to go from 300 million to over 400 million.

The daily administered doses were close to 14 million on Sunday, marking the highest daily vaccination doses so far.

Since the wave of epidemic resurgence occurred in East China's Anhui Province and Northeast China's Liaoning Province last week, public willingness to receive shots have increased. 

The daily inoculation doses in Anhui Province, which first reported confirmed cases on May 13, stayed at 840,000 within the week and the daily amount reached its highest on Sunday with more than 1.18 million doses administered, Dong Mingpei, an official with the provincial health commission, said at a Monday press conference.

More than 9.68 million people received their first shots and 2.03 million others received their second in Anhui. A total of 19.22 shots were made for every 100 people, Dong said. 

To meet surging demand following new COVID-19 cases, Dong said Anhui will continue to raise its vaccination capability at the inoculation sites. Media reports showed a number of cities within the province held governmental meetings to accelerate vaccination.

The epidemic flareup in Anhui and Liaoning provinces highlights importance of vaccinations as the inoculation rates of the two provinces, at 7.3 and 8.4 percent, respectively, was far below the national average based on the two-dose calculation standard, the Global Times found. 

Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert, told the Global Times on Monday that the country's vaccine supplies are enough to support China's accelerated administering speed, with the inoculation rate continuing to rise. 

Tao said it's possible that the overall doses will rise to 5 million in about a week.

China has approved one more inactivated COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use last week.  The producer, Shenzhen Kangtai Biological Products, said its production capacity is scheduled to reach 200 million annually.