06-11-2021, 10:50 AM
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BEIJING - When Mr Xie Xiaomin wanted to get vaccinated two weeks ago on May 29, he only had to trek 2km to the township hospital, where a vaccination centre had been specially set up for villages in the area.
"It's not far, many of us walked there. The government made it convenient for us to get vaccinated, especially the older villagers," said Mr Xie, 54, who runs a bed-and-breakfast in Mayuan village near the city of Jinggangshan in Jiangxi province.
Before this, those who wanted to get vaccinated would have to travel over 40km to city hospitals in Jinggangshan.
The rural vaccination effort is one example of how China has been marshalling state and party resources to boost the country's vaccination rate - which has almost quadrupled since April.
Beijing has set a target for 40 per cent of the population to be fully vaccinated by the end of June, and more than 80 per cent of people to be inoculated by the end of the year.
Under a two-dose vaccination regimen, the 40 per cent target would require about 1.13 billion doses to be administered.
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