A citizen receives vaccine at a center for disease control in Xiayi county, Central China's Henan Province, on August 2, 2021. Photo: IC

Henan Province in Central China is preparing to launch COVID-19 booster shots for people in key groups aged between 18 and 59 who have received two shots of inactivated vaccines six months prior, under the requirements of the country, Henan Daily reported on Thursday.

Those who will receive the booster shot must have finished their two previous shots at least six month prior. The program will be carried out in three batches, according to a video conference focusing on prevention and control of key infectious diseases including COVID-19 and influenza in autumn and winter.

The work will be conducted in September, October and November, for key groups who have received two doses of inactivated vaccine before March 1, April 1 and May 1, respectively.

The province said that it will prepare thoroughly in advance with enough information of the number of targeted people and the cost, so as to implement the booster shot smoothly for key groups.

The province has already administered 141 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. About 64.6 million people are fully vaccinated with either the two-dose inactivated vaccines or one-dose adenovirus vector vaccines.

The total number of vaccinated people in the province has reached 73.47 million. For people aged above 18, the vaccination rate of the second dose has reached 84.8 percent.

Global Times