In China, where 76 percent of the population has been completely vaccinated and officials maintain a zero-tolerance stance against outbreaks, children as young as three will begin receiving COVID-19 shots. In the last few days, local city and provincial governments in at least five provinces have issued letters requiring children aged 3 to 11 to obtain their vaccines.

The vaccine effort is being expanded as sections of China impose tighter restrictions in an attempt to contain tiny outbreaks. Following the discovery of new COVID-19 cases in Gansu, a north-western region that is heavily reliant on tourism, the province banned all tourist destinations on Monday. In some sections of Inner Mongolia, residents have been told to move. Over the last 24 hours, the National Health Commission recorded 35 new cases of local transmission, four of which were in Gansu. Another 19 cases were discovered in Inner Mongolia, with more distributed throughout the country.

Throughout the epidemic, China has used lockdowns, quarantines, and mandatory testing to largely eradicate local infection while fully vaccination 1.07 billion individuals out of a population of 1.4 billion. Based on public statistics, China’s most extensively used vaccinations, from Sinopharm and Sinovac, have shown efficacy in reducing serious sickness and virus transmission. However, the level of security they provide against the delta form has yet to be determined, despite officials’ assurances.

Individual cities in Hubei, Fujian, and Hainan provinces have all issued provincial-level notices announcing new vaccine mandates, as have individual cities in Zhejiang and Hunan provinces. China licenced two vaccinations for children aged 3 to 17 in June, Sinopharm’s from the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and Sinovac, but it has only been vaccinating those children.

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