BEIJING, Sep 16 (Bloomberg) - China has fully vaccinated more than a billion people against Covid-19 - more than 70 per cent of its total population - powering ahead of the United States and Europe despite having no immediate plans to ease some of the strictest pandemic measures in the world.

A total of 2.16 billion doses have been given in China as at Wednesday (Sept 15), Mr Mi Feng, a spokesman for the National Health Commission, told reporters in Beijing on Thursday, fully inoculating more than 1.01 billion people.

The milestone comes nearly 10 months after China give its first conditional approval to the inactivated vaccine from state-owned Sinopharm and kicked off the biggest immunisation campaign in history. Another six inoculations developed by domestic drugmakers and academic institutes have since been cleared and rolled out to those aged 12 and older.

The success of China's vaccination strategy has not averted flare-ups of the pathogen in recent months, and questions remain about how effective the shots are, especially against the newest variants.

The nation is currently battling a cluster in the south-eastern province of Fujian after squelching an earlier Delta outbreak, the broadest it has experienced since Covid-19 first appeared in Wuhan.