More than 8,000 doses of the BioNTech vaccine, which was developed with Pfizer, have been shipped to China and more than 1,500 people have registered their interest, Germany’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
About 14,000 German nationals live in China, according to the embassy.
German officials are “trying to expand the offer to other nationalities as well”, its foreign ministry said.
China has so far insisted on using only domestically produced vaccines, shunning Western-made vaccines that use newer mRNA technology.
China, home to 1.4 billion people, abruptly adandoned its “zero-COVID” policy last month and infections are surging across a population with little immunity after being shielded since the virus emerged three years ago in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
On Tuesday, the European Union offered free COVID-19 vaccines to China. Asked whether Beijing would accept the offer, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China’s vaccine supplies were adequate.
The arrangement allowing Germans in China to receive the BioNTech vaccine is reciprocal, and Chinese nationals living in Germany can also be vaccinated with China’s SinoVac, a German government spokesperson said last month.
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