China pushes vaccines as retreat from 'zero-COVID' turns messy

China raced to vaccinate its most vulnerable people on Thursday in anticipation of waves of COVID-19 infections, with some analysts expecting the death toll to soar after a loosening of strict controls that kept the pandemic at bay for three years, Qazet.az reports.

The push comes as the World Health Organisation also raised concerns that China's 1.4 billion population was not adequately vaccinated, and the United States offered to help China deal with a surge in infections.