ISLAMABAD: China is expected to produce more than 3 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses this year, an official said.

The country's current production capacity is around 5 billion vaccine doses annually, said Zheng Zhongwei, head of the working group for vaccine development under the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19, China news service reported.

Speaking at a sub-forum of the Boao Forum for Asia annual conference, Zheng said that, when the outbreak happened, China immediately focused on research and development for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The country chose to conduct research work on 12 types of vaccines from 10 research units across the country, Zheng said.