mRNA vaccines for Germans
In China, only deaths due to pneumonia and respiratory failure are being classified as COVID deaths after contracting COVID.
Other widely recognized potentially fatal COVID complications include blood clots, heart attacks, sepsis and kidney failure, with disease experts outside China saying the move would underestimate the impact of the virus.
Germany said it has sent its first batch of BioNTech 22UAY.DE Covid vaccines to China, which will initially be given to German expatriates. Berlin is pushing to allow other foreign nationals to carry them.
No details were available about the delivery time and size of the first mRNA vaccines available in China.
China has nine domestically developed Covid vaccines approved for use. None have been updated to target the highly infectious Omicron variant, as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA.O have boosters in several countries.
Some Chinese experts predict the peak of the COVID wave to be in late January, with life likely to return to normal by late February or early March.