Vaccination figures good but still not enough

The Beijing Municipal Health Commission had procured more than 30.05 million vaccine doses by Tuesday, according to a China Central TV report, and vaccinated 16.4 million of the city's more than 20 million residents with either one or both doses.

That's good progress from the 5 million doses that had been administered as of March 2 and 10 million as of April 2. Beijing leads the vaccination rate in the country, strengthening China's overall fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Till Tuesday, 70.2 percent of those aged 18 or above had been vaccinated, with the percentage for those working in the healthcare and tourism sectors as high as 90 percent.

According to Wu Zunyou, chief scientist on epidemic prevention and control at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 70-80 percent vaccination is required to achieve herd immunity.

That rate has already been reached for some sectors and age groups in Beijing. However, more needs to be done, because the virus is still active and raging in many parts of the world. In fact, new variants of the novel coronavirus have emerged in some countries, triggering a need to accelerate the pace of vaccinations.

Besides, in the week gone by, local infections were reported in Nanning in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and Maoming in Guangdong province. A few imported cases have also been reported in other places.

All these make it necessary to encourage more people to get vaccinated. Despite the high vaccination rate, some aspects of vaccination in Beijing also need improvement. For example, the vaccination rate among those aged 60 and above is not high enough. Local health departments must provide more personalized services and open more green channels so senior citizens can get vaccinated more conveniently. The same needs to be done across the country.

In the face of the pandemic, it is necessary to build a "Great Wall of Immunity" to better protect the Chinese people. And vaccinating as many people as possible is the most effective way to achieve that.

- BEIJING NEWS