People wait at vaccination site in Qujiang district of Quzhou city. [Photo/zj.zjol.com.cn]

It has been widely remarked on that the question of how soon a country can win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic – and get its economic activities and social life back to normal – depends on how many of its people it can vaccinate, to build a firewall against the novel coronavirus.

The authorities in East China's Zhejiang province on March 5 officially launched free shots for all eligible residents above the age of 18 years who are willing to receive the vaccine.

A total of 186,801 people in Quzhou city in Zhejiang were inoculated and the completion rate for the first dose reached 21.72 percent, ranking it first in Zhejiang, according to local media on March 29.

Next, Quzhou will strengthen its inoculation field deployments and expand the vaccination of COVID-19 vaccines among the eligible population.

China has set a target of vaccinating at least 70 percent of its population by the end of the year, according to the latest figures released by the State Council's COVID-19 response inter-agency task force.