Covax: Covid vaccine global effort gets China's support

Beijing joins initiative against vaccine nationalism' in contrast to US, which is not part of alliance

• Coronavirus - latest updates
• See all our coronavirus coverage

China has officially joined a global vaccine initiative for distributing 2bn doses of Covid-19 vaccines around the world by the end of next year, according to the ministry of foreign affairs.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday that Beijing had joined the initiative known as Covax, making China the largest economy to join to coalition aimed at countering so-called vaccine nationalism".