China pledges two billion vaccine doses to world, says Xi

China will "strive to provide" two billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to the world this year and donate $100 million to the international vaccine distribution system known as Covax, President Xi Jinping said Thursday.

The pledge came as a written message by Xi to a video forum on vaccine cooperation. 

This comes as China battles a fresh outbreak fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant.

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Delta has now been detected in parts of China. "For the whole of this year, China will strive to provide two billion doses of vaccine to the world," Xi said in remarks reported by state broadcaster CCTV.

Also, China has also promised to donate $100 million to Covax, he added, for the distribution of vaccines to developing countries.

The announcement comes weeks after Xi promised $3 billion in aid to developing countries to fight COVID-19.

The funds are aimed at helping developing nations recover from the social and economic impacts of the virus.