Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that China will continue supporting developing countries in their fights against COVID-19 and contribute to making vaccines public goods that are accessible and affordable to all.

China will start inoculating some key groups with COVID-19 vaccines in this winter-spring period, said a National Health Commission (NHC) official in Beijing on Saturday.

China has allowed foreigners holding certain types of visas and residence permits to return to China starting next week as the threat of coronavirus continues to recede.

China declared the whole country now at low virus risk Thursday as its new cases fall to near zero and no new deaths have been reported from COVID-19 in more than three weeks.