It’s not just the U.S.
State media reports China is trumpeting its COVID-19 booster program in certain provinces and Beijing, which hosts the Winter Games in February.
CCTV reported long lines in the Dongcheng District, Beijing, to administer an “intensification shot” of Chinese-made vaccines like the one from Sinopharm.
The country is also focusing on border cities to try and prevent the spillover of the virus from province to province.
China has taken a hardline stance on coronavirus prevention after the pathogen was discovered in the central city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, sparking a global pandemic. It has imposed draconian lockdowns and used mass testing to try and keep the virus at bay, though the delta variant has tested its defenses.
The government says it has administered more than 2 billion doses of its vaccines overall. It is particularly wary because it will kick off the Olympics on Feb. 4.
The games will be tightly controlled, with athletes living in a closed-off bubble and submitting to regular testing. Only Chinese residents will be permitted to attend events.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Thursday green-lighted a sweeping booster program that allows any American adult who received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at least two months ago to seek another dose of any vaccine.
Persons who are older than 65, adults with underlying conditions and people in high-risk jobs who received a messenger-RNA series from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna may seek out a booster from any of the three vaccines if they are at least six months out from their second dose.
