(Bloomberg) -- China will make BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine available to foreigners living in the country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, a potential first step toward offering the shot more widely across the mainland. 

The German chancellor said he spoke with Chinese leaders about perspectives for general approval of the shot from BioNTech, partnered with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co. in China. Closer cooperation with the European Medicines Agency could be a way to smooth the path, Scholz said in Beijing after meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

“This can of course only be a first step,” Scholz told foreign journalists. “I hope the circle of beneficiaries may soon be widened to general availability of the BioNTech vaccine.”

Scholz’s comments come amid embryonic signs China is at least planning for an eventual easing away from Covid Zero. Even a limited approval for expats only would be the first time a Western Covid shot has been endorsed in China. It also comes amid mounting pushback against China’s strict stance on Covid and a series of highly unusual protests.

Officials are working on plans to scrap a system that penalizes airlines for bringing infected passengers into China, people familiar with the matter said, and there is also said to be a debate among bureaucrats over reducing the time inbound travelers need to spend in mandatory quarantine. 

China Said to Prepare Plan to End Covid Flight Suspensions

Experts have long pointed toward China’s vaccine policy as a major hurdle in the path toward living with Covid, like the rest of the world. Though the vast majority of the country’s population has been vaccinated, authorities have relied on locally-developed vaccines like those from state-backed Sinopharm, and Sinovac Biotech Ltd. Studies have shown that two doses of Sinovac offer less protection than mRNA shots in preventing severe infections or death. 

Vaccine Policy

China has taken a strict stance on importing foreign vaccines, including Covid shots, said Emanuel Luttersdorfer, a family physician at Raffles Hospital in Beijing. Though some foreign embassies have been permitted to import Covid shots and disperse them among their diplomats and some of their citizens in China, the relaxation of rules about BioNTech would give more foreigners this option, Luttersdorfer said.

“People have been asking whether there’s access to vaccines from abroad,” he said. “More of the foreign population is way keener to get a vaccine that’s foreign-produced than anything that’s being produced in mainland China.”

BioNTech is working with Pfizer Inc. on the Covid shot outside greater China. Fosun Pharma, which already supplies to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, declined to comment on the plan to offer the BioNTech shot to expats on the mainland. It’s already possible for people from mainland China to pay out of pocket to get the shot if they travel to Macau, a spokesperson said. 

Virus Fear

Xi has held up China’s track record on deaths -- it’s recorded just 5,226 Covid fatalities, versus more than 1 million in the US -- as a reason to stick with Covid Zero, so any exit plan would also need to factor in a shift in government rhetoric and a public education campaign. Fear of the virus remains strong in China, and there is little natural immunity.  

The BioNTech news will probably be welcomed by investors, with Chinese equities near multiyear lows because of the economic damage wrought by Covid Zero. Unverified rumors China was eying a plan to reopen this week spurred speculative rallies in local markets, even as the country’s top health body reaffirmed its commitment to the zero-tolerance virus approach.

Wake Up, China. Markets Really Hate Covid Zero: John Authers

Also during Scholz’s visit Friday, China announced the signing of a deal with Airbus SE to supply 140 planes to the mainland. The European planemaker said the agreement with China Aviation Supplies Holding for 132 A320-family aircraft and 8 widebody A350 aircraft involves previously announced orders.

--With assistance from Dong Lyu, Siddharth Philip and Birgit Jennen.

(Updates with context and additional details throughout.)

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.