BEIJING: China will purchase COVID-19 vaccines for 1pc of its population, or 15 million people, via a global scheme backed by the World Health Organization, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

Beijing's move to join the COVAX programme means China "will be procuring vaccines through the facility for a proportion of their own population, just as with other countries", a spokesman for GAVI, which co-leads the scheme, said earlier.

The first batch of vaccine available under the plan will be in short supply, so there would be less for other countries if China had secured doses for a large number of its 1.4 billion people, ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a news briefing.

China has at least four experimental vaccines in final stages of clinical trials, and is also in talks with the WHO to have its domestically made vaccines assessed for international use.

Self-financing countries in COVAX scheme can request vaccine doses sufficient for 10-50pc of their populations, GAVI said on its website.

Funded countries will receive enough doses to vaccinate up to 20pc of their population in the longer term, GAVI said.