Official: Elderly need vaccines, boosters to fight COVID

The National Health Commission called on Tuesday for an intensified effort to ensure that elderly people in China receive COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, as this group is much more vulnerable to the novel coronavirus.

Zheng Zhongwei, head of China's COVID-19 vaccine development task force, said the risk of severe illness among unvaccinated seniors is significantly higher than their vaccinated younger counterparts, according to figures collected from recent outbreaks in Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.

So far, about 50 million seniors in the country, accounting for 20 percent of the total number of people over 60 in China, have yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In some provinces, the vaccination rate of people aged 80 and above is less than 30 percent.