BEIJING — China's annual production capacity for COVID-19 vaccines has reached 5 billion doses as of July, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The country has sent up to 570 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines overseas to aid the global fight against the COVID-19 virus, Tian Yulong, chief engineer at the MIIT, told a press conference.

Domestically, over 1.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered as the country continues to ramp up its inoculation drive, according to Tian.

The continued production expansion and deliverability improvement of COVID-19 vaccines have met domestic demands and supported epidemic control overseas to the best of China's ability, said Tian.

For the rest of the year, Tian said the ministry will continue to guide vaccine producers to ensure safe and stable vaccine production.

At the same time, the ministry will coordinate domestic and overseas demands and support vaccine producers to boost international capacity cooperation, so as to make vaccines more accessible and affordable and contribute to the global pandemic fight, said Tian.