A boy receives COVID-19 vaccine in Baiyun district in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province on October 27, 2021. Photo: VCG

With Beijing officially launching the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for children aged 3 to 11, at least 12 provinces and regions started the inoculations to accelerate the building of herd immunity amid the latest outbreak. 

The Chinese capital started the vaccination for children aged 3 to 11 on Thursday when the city reported five new cases and two asymptomatic infections, bringing the total of domestically transmitted cases to 27. The local health authority indicated that schools and kindergartens are crowded places which could lead to the spread of infectious diseases. Therefore, the inoculation of children between the ages of 3 and 11 is an important step in building herd immunity and cutting off virus transmission. 

A number of regions launched the campaign over the week, including Hubei, Hunan, Hainan and Zhejiang provinces, the provincial health commissions announced on their official websites. 

As of Thursday evening, at least 12 provinces across the country had launched the vaccination campaign for the children aged 3 to 11. 

According to the notice, the 3 to 11 age group will be inoculated with Chinese vaccines developed by Sinopharm's Beijing Institute of Biological Products, Sinopharm's Wuhan Institute of Biological Products and Sinovac. 

Experts said previously that it is necessary to speed up the vaccination drive for children in this age group to protect them in densely crowded school campuses and those around them, especially seniors, as winter approaches and another spike of coronavirus cases rapidly sweeps across the country.

The Chinese mainland on Wednesday reported 23 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases according to the National Health Commission’s daily report.