As China rushes to roll out vaccinating its 1.3 billion citizens with COVID-19 jabs, experts have said the extra workload on front-line staff could jeopardize the country’s national immunization program, and lead to an outbreak of other infectious diseases.

Global vaccination rates against whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus have declined for the first time in 30 years, said Liang Xiaofeng, Secretary General of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, quoting statistics from the World Health Organization.

Liang, who spoke at a seminar on vaccination strategies last Saturday in Beijing, said he was worried that the COVID-19 vaccination campaign rollout could consume healthcare resources originally dedicated for immunizing children, and cause a disruption to the national program.

As temporary COVID-19 vaccination stations must be set up apart from existing inoculation centers, this has seen vaccinators being transferred from their original posts to instead administer COVID-19 shots, Chinese news outlet Caixin recently reported.

The campaign has especially put a strain on medical health workers in charge of carrying out immunization in rural areas, who are saddled with both tasks, Feng Danlong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference told Caixin.

Respiratory medicine specialist Leung Chi-chiu told Apple Daily that if the COVID-19 vaccine campaign affected the national program, it may increase the chance of a community outbreak of other infectious diseases and leave children unprotected.

“Even though there is social distancing and mask wearing, there is still no 100% protection. Especially as measles is very contagious, it could lead to an outbreak if they are not vaccinated,” Leung said.

Hong Kong was unlikely to face the same problem given its low birth rate, Leung said, adding that Hong Kong’s medical manpower shortage would also likely be less severe than rural areas in China that were understaffed.

China has already had to play catch up with its national immunization program that was hit with delays due to the pandemic. Vaccine doses administered within and outside the nationwide program at sampled clinics decreased by 80% and 90%, respectively last year, compared with before the pandemic, according to China CDC Weekly.

At least 94% of the nearly 90 million vaccine dose backlog was cleared in a six-month period from March last year, the report said.

As of Thursday, China has administered 91 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, National Health Commission data showed.

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