According to officials, China's Covid-19 vaccinations are safe and have been administered to state and ruling Communist party leaders. Beijing intensifies attempts to assuage public fears about safety that could impede its vaccination campaign.

Zeng Yixin, deputy head of the National Health Commission, stated on Saturday that all of China's state and party leaders had been vaccinated against Covid-19 with locally produced shots.

In China, "state and party leaders" is a group of national and deputy national-level top officials, including the president, Xi Jinping, and the prime minister, Li Keqiang.

Zeng's remark, which did not indicate when officials received the vaccination or how many doses they had received, was made roughly two years after the nation's Covid vaccination campaign was initiated. China is well behind other countries in telling the public about the vaccination status of its leaders.

Lower vaccination rates among the elderly will likely strain health resources if the virus spreads widely and make China less prepared to abandon its "dynamic Covid zero" policy, which mandates strict quarantine requirements for international travelers and restrictions on people's movement local businesses in areas with clusters.

According to the National Health Commission, China recorded 982 new coronavirus cases on July 23, up from 817 the previous day. Most instances occurred in the province of Gansu and the region of Guangxi in the south.

The country has reached a vaccination rate of 89.7 percent, giving approximately 56 percent of its 1.41 billion inhabitants a booster dosage. Still, only 61 percent of those aged 80 and older have completed their main immunization.

However, more aggressive efforts by frontline officials, such as restricting the entrance of the unvaccinated to public venues, sparked internet outrage and were swiftly retracted.

The safety of injections used in China is a big issue among the unvaccinated, with instances of severe disease inciting online dread and criticism over the lack of government and vaccine manufacturer transparency.

"Covid vaccines do not cause leukemia or diabetes, nor do they affect genetic development, cause tumor metastasis, or cause antibody-dependent enhancement," said Wang Fusheng, an infectious disease expert at a Chinese military-affiliated hospital.

During 2018-22, hospitalization rates for diabetes and leukemia were comparable, according to Wang at a news conference.

Feng Zijian, an official with the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, stated that the complete primary vaccination with Chinese shots reduced the risk of progressing to severe disease by 89 percent in those over 60. Compared with the unvaccinated, a booster dose further reduced the risk to 95 percent.

Sinovac and Sinopharma produced the most popular Chinese shots. The country has not yet approved Covid products manufactured outside.