Last week, China reported a new Covid-19 outbreak in Ruili in Yunnan province, bordering Myanmar. More than 48 confirmed and 37 asymptomatic cases were detected. Some of the patients are Myanmar citizens. The local CDC said the infection was most probably imported from Myanmar and is not related to earlier localized outbreaks in China. Meanwhile the whole population of Ruili has been tested and more than 1,320 close contacts of the patients have been quarantined in eight hotels. A large-scale vaccination campaign has also been launched in five counties and cities in an effort to build an immunity barrier. All residents in the city are required to quarantine at home for a week and will not be allowed to go out unless they have a special reason. The resurgence of Covid-19 in the area is thought to have been the result of illegal border crossing, prompting the local government to impose strict controls in the border area. Ruili on April 5 raised the risk levels in three areas to “high risk” and in six areas to “medium risk,” breaking the 42-day streak after the Chinese mainland declared on February 22 that there were no longer any medium- and high-risk areas.

China is ramping up its efforts to vaccinate 560 million people, or 40% of the population, by the end of June. Another 330 million people will be vaccinated by the end of the year, covering 64% of the total population. China’s daily vaccination capacity can reach 10 million doses as the vaccination campaign scales up. Given a daily average of 10 million doses, the national total would reach approximately 1 billion doses by the end of June, covering at least 500 million people if each completes two shots, close to the target of immunizing 40% of the population – 560 million people – by the end of June. Nearly 400,000 people in Shanghai can be vaccinated every day, the local Center for Disease Control and Prevention said. So far, almost 2.5 million people have received at least one  shot, while more than 40,000 people have completed the vaccination with two shots.

Sinovac and Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines are likely to be included into the emergency use list of the World Health Organization (WHO) by the end of April as both companies have provided efficacy data from their phase-3 clinical trials compatible with the WHO standard. The WHO sent experts to investigate their production workshops in Beijing in February.

Meanwhile, the WHO published its 120-page report on the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, based on a trip to China by international experts. They determined that some positive samples were found outside China before the first cases were identified in Wuhan, suggesting that Covid-19 originated elsewhere. The likelihood that the virus escaped from a lab was deemed very low. China has urged the WHO to continue the search for the origins of Covid-19 outside China and also to examine whether cold chain transportation played a role. The WHO said the SARS-CoV-2 virus most probably jumped from bats to humans via an intermediary animal. The Chinese government dismissed reports that it withheld data from the WHO team, as alleged in the Western press. 

China should boost investment in core materials and technologies for making vaccines, including lipid nanoparticles (LNP) – which are scarce around the world right now – for making Covid-19 mRNA vaccines, Gao Fu, Director of the Chinese CDC said. Worldwide, there are currently only a few companies that supply LNP to vaccine makers, including Germany-based Evonik and Merck KGaA, and Canada-based Acuita, and many are running at their full capacity to meet the soaring demand. Only a few Chinese companies, including Luye Pharma Group, Stemirna, Cansino and Walvax have also been developing LNP. Several sectors in biomedical development have been receiving increased investments. “Ever since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been rising attention in the biomedicine economy, including in clinical research organizations in animal-based research, and contract development and manufacturing organizations developing viral vectors,” Zhu Jinqiao, Chairman of EFUNG Investment Management Enterprise, a venture capital firm focusing on biomedicine, told the Global Times. The approved vaccines in China so far are mainly inactivated vaccines which are built on established mature technology, and the country is also ramping up efforts in developing or importing mRNA vaccines as an alternative choice.

China provided quarantine services to approximately 125,000 foreigners coming to China in 2020, according to statistics released by the National Immigration Administration in January.

This overview is based on reporting by the China Daily, Shanghai Daily and Global Times.