China to offer 10 million vaccine doses to Covax

China is slated to provide 10 million doses of Covid vaccine to the WHO-backed international distribution programme Covax, Beijing said Wednesday.

The Covax programme, which aims to provide two billion doses of vaccine, pools funding from richer countries with the intention of ensuring poorer nations can inoculate their health workers and most vulnerable citizens, on the basis that the pandemic would remain a global threat if it was not tackled worldwide.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Wednesday that China "decided to provide 10 million vaccine doses to Covax, primarily to meet the urgent needs of developing countries."

The foreign ministry said last month that three Chinese vaccine makers, Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino, had formally applied for inclusion in the Covax stockpile.

The coronavirus is believed to have broken out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, and the country has faced criticism over its early handling of the outbreak.

Beijing has hence been seeking to redo its image, and has, thereby, signed agreements to supply millions of doses in what analysts have called "vaccine diplomacy" to earn goodwill among poorer countries.