China ramps up vaccination drive with free eggs

China's success at controlling the coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a population that has seemed almost reluctant to get vaccinated. So it is accelerating its inoculation campaign by offering incentives - free eggs, store coupons and discounts on groceries and merchandise to those getting a shot. After a slow start, China is now giving millions of shots a day.

On March 26 alone, it administered 6.1 million shots. A top government doctor, Zhong Nanshan, has announced a goal of vaccinating 560 million of the country's 1.4 billion people by June. The challenge lies partly in the sheer scale of the effort and the need to convince a population that currently feels safe from infections.

A top official of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a conference last weekend that the current vaccines offer low protection against the coronavirus and they are considering mixing shots to boost their effectiveness. When patients first showed up at hospitals in Wuhan in late 2019 with fevers, coughs and breathing difficulties, the government locked down the city and others in Hubei province for more than two months starting in January 2020.

Wuhan later became known as the epicenter of the outbreak. Since then, China has controlled the virus through stringent border controls and quick lockdowns whenever new outbreaks crop up. People can dine out in restaurants and the risk of infection is low, so many don't seem to be in a hurry to get the vaccine.

But China also wants to open up as the world seeks to return to pre-pandemic normalcy and Beijing readies to welcome tens of thousands of visitors as host of the Winter Olympics in February 2022. While successful with swift lockdowns and a robust contact tracing system via smartphones, the government is also weighing those measures in balance with an eventual return to normalcy.

For now, in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, the government has relied mostly on sustained messaging and freebies to convince people to get vaccinated. Shopping malls have offered points at stores or coupons. A temple in Beijing offered free entry to anyone showing proof of vaccination. Shanghai is using buses in its campaign to set up mobile vaccination points. And then there are the free eggs.

"Good news. Starting from today, residents 60 years old and above who have gotten their first shot are eligible for five 'jin' (2.5 kilograms or 5 1/2 pounds) of eggs. First come, first serve," said a poster by a city-run health center in Beijing.

Some people have expressed doubts about how good the existing vaccines are, Chinese or not, given how quickly they were developed. The free-offer strategy doesn't appeal to 52-year-old Wang Shuhai who is waiting for his second shot. "We should cherish our lives rather than coveting petty gains. If we are sick, how can the free eggs help?" said Wang. 

Image Credits: AP