BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s capital of Beijing has started offering domestically developed COVID-19 vaccines to foreigners, the city’s foreign affairs office said on Friday.
Foreigners without the city-backed insurance scheme will pay 93.5 yuan ($14.29) per dose for the two shot-based regimen, while vaccination would be free for those covered by the insurance.
In its notice on social media, the city did not identify the vaccines to be given to non-Chinese, but said they would make use of “inactivated” coronavirus, killed to ensure it cannot infect people but can trigger immune response.
Three of the four Chinese vaccines approved for general public use are in the inactivated category. Two are from units of China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and one from Sinovac Biotech.
Millions of doses made by Sinopharm and Sinovac have been supplied overseas via exports or donations.
On Tuesday, the commercial hub of Shanghai said it would allow non-Chinese to make vaccination reservations from next week.
($1=6.5409 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Roxanne Liu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Michael Perry)
