Beijing, Feb 1 (IANS): More than 24 million doses of the vaccine against the novel coronavirus have been administered in China, authorities confirmed

The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Sunday that preliminary tests showed the incidence of severe abnormal reactions caused by the Covid-19 vaccines currently used in China is no higher than that of the influenza vaccine, Xinhua news agency reported

Last month, an inactivated vaccine called the CoronaVac developed by Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), affiliated with Sinopharm, became the first to receive conditional market approval from the National Medical Products Administration.

It works by using killed viral particles to expose the body's immune system to the virus without risking a serious disease response.

Since the onset of the pandemic late 2019, China has so far registered a total of 89,564 coronavirus cases and 4,636 deaths.