Beijing district gives shopping coupons to spur vaccine uptake

BEIJING: A Beijing suburb is giving out discount coupons for supermarkets to residents who have received a Covid-19 jab, as China tries to boost the uptake of its vaccines.

China aims to vaccinate 40 percent of its population against the coronavirus by the end of July.

The national health commission Wednesday said that only 82.8 million vaccine doses have been administered so far.

But vaccinating the world's most populous country has been slower than expected due to mistrust owing to past safety scandals as well as a lack of urgency among a public confident in China's early success in curbing the virus.

Daxing, a district in the south of Beijing with over 1.8 million residents, rolled out its "rewards for jabs" campaign Wednesday, handing out coupons worth eight to 30 yuan ($1.23 - $4.6) to people who have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The coupons can be used when shopping at any supermarket in the district, the local government said on its official Weibo account.

Officials have earmarked $30 million for the program, state-run Beijing Daily reported.

More than 73 percent of residents in Daxing aged 18 and above have had at least one shot, the newspaper said.

China is also still working to ramp up production of its four approved, domestically produced vaccines and has yet to approve any foreign-made shots.