65 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to public

As of Sunday, China had administered 64.98 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the public, Li Bin, the deputy director of the National Health Commission, said in a news briefing on Monday.

Li said China's vaccine rollout strategies will cover three major demographics: High-risk personnel, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions, and those who do not belong to the prior two groups but still wish to be inoculated.

"Our ultimate goal is to provide effective protection for everyone," he said.

High-risk personnel consist of people who are at a higher risk of infection by the disease. This includes essential workers in key sectors, as well as people working in border regions and labor-intensive industries. Seniors who are in good health but need to take the vaccine for special reasons also belong to this group.

"Vaccine rollout for this category is currently going smoothly," Li added.

The second phase includes mass inoculating the elderly and people with underlying health conditions. But right now there is not enough clinical data to prove the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for this demographic, so scientists will need to do more research before mass vaccination can take place.