State-backed vaccine maker China National Biotec Group (CNBG) is hopeful of two of its novel coronavirus vaccine candidates receiving conditional regulatory approval for general public use within the year, Reuters reported quoting the company's vice president.

China has inoculated hundreds of thousands of people under an emergency programme authorised in July for essential workers and other limited groups of people considered at high risk of infection, to stave off a resurgence of the coronavirus, even as clinical trials of vaccines are still underway to prove their efficacy and safety.