Chinese police have arrested more than 80 people for allegedly making counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines, as China races to inoculate millions before the Lunar New Year holiday.
According to
Xinhua news agency, the gang had been putting saline water into vials and
selling them as COVID-19 vaccines in an operation that had been running since
last September.
The police
operation was carried out at several locations across Beijing and multiple
cities in the eastern provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong, seizing "more
than 3,000 fake COVID-19 vaccines on the spot," Xinhua said.
The suspects
may have intended to send the vaccines abroad, the government-backed Global
Times newspaper reported, citing a source close to a major Chinese vaccine
producer.
This comes as
China is racing to develop home grown jabs as they aim to vaccinate 50 million
people before the start of the Lunar New Year in mid-February as hundreds of
millions of people will be traveling for the festivity.
State-owned
firm Sinopharm's vaccine was approved by Chinese regulators for general use in
December.
Since the
virus emerged in 2019 in China, authorities have charged thousands of people
with crimes related to the pandemic, including spreading "rumours",
concealing an infection, and not complying with guidelines.
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