In China, children from the age of three are now vaccinated against the corona virus.

Several municipalities and provincial governments announced the start of a corresponding campaign this week.

On the tropical island of Hainan and in the east Chinese province of Zhejiang, it was said that kindergarten groups and elementary school classes should go collectively for immunization.

The national education ministry has emphasized that participation is voluntary.

Friederike Böge

Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.

  • Follow I follow

However, the local governments interpret the line between duty and voluntariness differently.

In Hainan, the authorities sent letters to parents saying that for the benefit of their children, they should "have a correct attitude and actively support the vaccination of your child".

“Active guidance” by authorities

In official Chinese this means "active guidance". The central government warned local authorities not to be too robust. A spokesman for the Ministry of Education said that parents “should not be encouraged by means of coercion, especially not as a requirement for the admission of pupils to elementary and secondary schools”. A teacher told the FAZ that at her secondary school, the students were “encouraged” until the last ones had been vaccinated. A vaccination rate of over ninety percent was achieved among twelve to seventeen year olds.

In June, the responsible Chinese supervisory authority approved two inactivated vaccines from the manufacturers Sinovac and Sinopharm for the age group between three and 17 years. At first, however, the older vintages were preferred. In September, a corona outbreak at four primary schools and two kindergartens in Fujian Province caused calls for younger children to be vaccinated. A current study by the specialist journal Lancet rates the Sinopharm vaccine for children of this age as "safe and well tolerated". In Cambodia, Chile, the United Arab Emirates and Argentina, the two Chinese vaccines have now received emergency approval for children from three and six years of age, respectively.

In the meantime, the corona restrictions have been tightened again in numerous Chinese provinces after a good 200 new infections were reported in the past few days. A lockdown was imposed on the city of Lanzhou on Tuesday. The four million inhabitants are only allowed to leave their houses and apartments in exceptional cases. Individual residential areas in the capital Beijing have also been cordoned off. The marathon planned for Sunday has been canceled.

In the capital, the conditions are particularly strict because of the Olympic Winter Games in February.

Travelers from cities where one or more infections have been reported in the past two weeks are only allowed to enter Beijing in urgent cases, said the deputy head of the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

Even residents of Beijing are turned away at the city limits.