China pushes vax as easing of Covid curbs turns messy

BEIJING/SHANGHAI: China raced to vaccinate its most vulnerable people on Thursday in anticipation of waves of Covid-19 infections, with some analysts expecting the death toll to soar after it eased strict controls that had kept the pandemic at bay for three years.
WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said infections were exploding in China well before the government's decision to phase out its stringent regime. "There's a narrative at the moment that China lifted the restrictions and all of a sudden the disease is out of control," Ryan told a briefing in Geneva. "The disease was spreading intensively because I believe the control measures in themselves were not stopping the disease."
On Thursday night, China's state asset regulator urged state-backed big drugmakers to ensure supplies of Covid-related medicines. The companies include China Resources, China General Technology and Sinopharm, which own businesses that produce drugs that could ease coronavirus symptoms. The Covid scare in China also led people in Hong Kong, Macau and in some neighbourhoods in Australia to go in search for fever medicines and test kits for family and friends on the mainland.