A new emergency authorization marks China’s fourth approval for inactivated COVID-19 vaccines, despite lingering doubts over the protection offered by the technology and surging cases in one of the most vaccinated countries where Sinopharm’s inactivated vaccines are widely used.

Originated by a Suzhou-based biotech founded two years ago and now being jointly developed with WalVax, China’s first homegrown mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is now entering the final stages of development.

Amid a case of re-infection of a vaccinated healthcare worker in western China’s Xi’an city, and ongoing debate over domestic vaccines' efficacy, increasing attention is being paid in China to raising inoculation rates for COVID-19 and moving towards herd immunity.

China's regulators and spin doctors rush to remedy a comment from the nation’s top infectious disease official about the “not high” protection rate for its COVID-19 vaccines, amid debate over speedy development using mature technologies and doubts over protection in seniors. A slow roll-out is already presenting challenges to meeting an official 40% target.