Chinese pharmaceutical companies are struggling to keep pace with surging demand at home and abroad for COVID-19 vaccines. “The problem is that it currently does not have enough production capacity to satisfy both domestic and international demand, which makes its vaccine diplomacy unsustainable at least in the coming two months,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

There’ve been some modest-sized deliveries to African countries over the past week but definitely fewer than in early April. This may be because countries in other regions are placing significantly larger orders for Chinese jabs due to the export freeze of AstraZeneca vaccines mandated by the Indian government coming at the same time as China is stepping up its own national vaccination drive.