China's COVID-19 vaccines help emerging states achieve impressive vaccination rates: UK research report

LONDON - Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines have helped some emerging countries achieve impressive vaccination rates, in some cases faster than richer economies, said a British research report Wednesday.

The Economist Intelligence Unit, research and analysis division of Economist Group, said in its latest report that more than seven billion shots have been administered around the world as of late October. However, developed countries have succeeded in vaccinating large percentages of their populations, while many developing states have made only negligible progress.

In some emerging economies, like Chile and Cambodia, most population has been inoculated thanks to China's help, noted the report.

Data showed Chile now posts one of the highest vaccination rates worldwide with 79 percent, and one of the reasons is that Chile secured huge supplies of Chinese-made Sinovac jab early on and "Sinovac had become the vaccine of choice in Chile and was used for 90 percent of shots".

"Chile is not an isolated case; many other Latin American countries, including El Salvador, Mexico and Uruguay, are also relying on Chinese vaccines," added the report.

It also showed that by October Cambodia had achieved one of the highest inoculation rates worldwide, with nearly 80 percent of Cambodian residents vaccinated, ahead of all other Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries, except Singapore.

"Cambodia's ability to inoculate a large share of its population shows that vaccination success stories exist in emerging states, with China's help," said Agathe Demarais, author of the report.