The global COVID-19 death toll exceeded 5 million on Monday, less than four months after reaching the 4-million mark, with many countries grappling with severe resurgences of the pandemic mainly fuelled by the more contagious variants of COVID-19, including Delta.

The Chinese mainland on Monday reported 54 new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Tuesday.

To maintain an edge over the cunning enemy, the international community must ensure vaccine equity and strengthen global cooperation.

The first batch of people aged 3-11 were vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province(Photo/Zhejiang News)

President Xi Jinping addressed the 16th G20 Leaders' Summit via video link in Beijing on Saturday, Oct 30. He proposed a global vaccine cooperation action initiative, highlighting the need to provide more vaccines to developing countries and strengthening international research and development cooperation.

The G20 includes the world's major economies and should therefore play a leading role in building consensus, mobilizing resources, and promoting cooperation, he said.

He called for stronger vaccine research and cooperation and supporting vaccine companies in conducting joint R&D and production with developing countries.

"We need to uphold equity and justice, and provide more vaccines to developing countries to meet the global vaccination target for 2022 as set by the World Health Organization," he said.

Xi also urged the WHO to make an early decision on waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines, and encourage vaccine companies to transfer technology to developing countries.

It is also important to scale up cross-border trade cooperation to ensure smooth trade in vaccines and related raw and auxiliary materials and treat different vaccines equally and advance mutual recognition of vaccines.

China has provided over 1.6 billion doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organizations, and will provide over two billion doses to the world in the course of this year. The nation is also conducting joint vaccine production with 16 countries, with an initial capacity of 700 million doses per year.

"China is ready to work with all parties to enhance vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries and make positive contribution to building a global line of defense through vaccination," Xi said.

Editor: Jin Weiduo