Nearly four million people have been vaccinated against A/H1N1 in China. Mass inoculation has been health authorities' top priority to curb further spreading of the virus. Reporter explains how Chinese companies are making the most of their capabilities to meet the huge demand.

Many people in China have heeded medical experts' advice and received their inoculation before the peak flu season. But the surge of vaccinations has strained supplies.

More than 390 million nationwide make up the most vulnerable groups who need to be vaccinated this winter. But China's eight designated vaccine producers can only produce 100 million doses by the end of March next year.

The strategy has been to produce more in a short span of time to meet the rising demand.

Beijing-based SinoVac was one of the first companies to obtain a government license to produce the A/H1N1 vaccine. Since October, the company's production line has been operating around the clock.

It has managed to double its daily output to 200-thousand doses in a bid to meet the government's quota of 6.3 million doses.

Yin Weidong, Chairman of Board of Sinovac Biotech, said, "The production of the A/H1N1 vaccine is our principal task and the rest of the operation must yield to this priority. In the past, our workshops only produced vaccines four days a week - five days had been the maximum. But now, we are producing vaccines daily. Production has been relentless."

There is the same busy scene at the workshops of Henan-based Hualan Biological Engineering Corporation. So far the company has contributed 19 million doses to the state vaccine reserve plan.

The Ministry of Industry and Information is urging all designated companies to improve their efficiency. The ministry has ordered an additional batch of more than 42 million doses from these companies, to be delivered by the middle of December.

(CCTV November 7, 2009)