The World Health Organisation's pandemic programme plans to ship 100 million doses of the Sinovac and Sinopharm Covid-19 shots by the end of next month, mostly to Africa and Asia, in its first delivery of Chinese vaccines, a WHO document shows.

The Chinese shipments will help the sputtering global Covax vaccine sharing programme which is far behind its pledge to deliver two billion doses this year following supply problems and export curbs imposed by major producer India, according to a Reuters report.

Of the 100 million Chinese vaccines, half will be provided by Sinopharm and half by Sinovac, with deliveries planned for “July to September 2021”, a WHO document says.

The Chinese vaccines have been allocated to 60 countries, mostly in Africa, which is expected to receive a third of the 100m doses.