Germany Send BioNTech, China Will Receive The First Foreign COVID-19 Vaccine

Illustration of the COVID-19 vaccine. (Wikimedia Commons/B1mbo)

JAKARTA - Berlin has sent the first batch of BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to China, to initially be given to the German expatriate, a spokesman for the German Government said on Wednesday, the first foreign coronavirus vaccine to be delivered to the country.

No details are available on the timing and size of the shipment, although a spokesman said Berlin was pushing foreigners other than German nationals, estimated at around 20,000, to be allowed access to vaccines if they wanted them.

The shipments came after China agreed to allow German nationals in China to get an injection, following an agreement during Chancellor Olaf Scholz's visit to Beijing last month, with German leaders urging Beijing to allow the injection to be freely available to Chinese citizens as well.

In a letter to be sent to German nationals in mainland China, the government said it would offer basic immunizations and approved vaccine booster injections, to be used in the European Union for free for anyone over the age of 12.

Family members from other countries will not be included. Vaccinations for children under 12 years old can follow in the future.

"We are working on the possibility that apart from Germans, other foreigners can also be vaccinated with BioNTech," the spokesman told reporters in Berlin.

Vaccines will be delivered to German companies in China as well as embassy locations, while talks are ongoing with other EU governments about sending them to other nationals, sources familiar with the situation said.

In addition, China needs to approve the expansion of access beyond German citizens, the source said.

In return, Chinese citizens in Europe can be vaccinated with China's SinoVac vaccine, the spokesman said.

The comments came after a report earlier this month that the German Ministry of Health had granted permission to allow China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine imports to Germany to be given to Chinese nationals in the country.

The vaccine has not been approved for use by European drug regulators, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has given the green light for its use.

Beijing has so far insisted on using only domestically produced vaccines, which are not based on Western mRNA technology, but on more traditional technologies.

In addition, the shipment comes amid the demolition of Beijing's strict "zero-COVID" lockdown regime, which has led to a spike in cases that left fragile health systems unprepared.

Allowing German expatriates to access Western fire was a major signal for Berlin, reflecting Beijing's efforts to strengthen ties with the European nation.