China joins COVAX vaccine facility for COVID-19
Coronavirus vaccine
China said on Friday it has formally joined the global COVID-19 vaccine facility known as COVAX. With this, it has become the biggest economy to back the initiative to date.
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said in a statement that China has ample COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capabilities and will prioritise supplying developing countries when vaccines are ready.
The COVAX facility, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to deliver at least 2 billion doses of vaccines by the end of 2021.
China currently has four coronavirus vaccine candidates in stage 3 clinical trials.
The country signed an agreement with GAVI, the co-leader of the alliance, on Thursday, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Initially, China did not agree to join the alliance, missing the global deadline to join in September.
The country's leader Xi Jinping previously said that China would make the vaccine a global public good.
The alliance is designed so that richer countries agree to buy into potential vaccines and help finance access for poorer ones. The Trump administration in the US had declined to join the alliance.