More than 1 billion people in China – 71% of the world’s most populous country – have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, official figures showed on Thursday.

Axar.az reports citing foreign media.

“As of 1 September 15, 2.16bn vaccine doses have been administered nationwide,” said Mi Feng, spokesman for the national health commission, at a press conference.

The government has not publicly announced a target for vaccination coverage, but one senior virologist, Zhong Nanshan, said last month that China is likely to have 80% of its population vaccinated by the end of the year, according to the French state-backed news agency AFP.

The milestone comes as an outbreak of the Delta variant in the south-eastern province of Fujian has infected almost 200 people so far in three cities.

The Fujian cluster is the biggest rebound in weeks and comes after the country declared the Delta variant under control, in a test of China’s “zero-case” approach to the pandemic.

China reported 80 new cases on Thursday, of which 49 were domestic transmissions.