At least 18 enterprises in China have started to build production capacity for COVID-19 vaccine in accordance with their own progresses made in the research and development of the vaccine, an official said on Thursday.

So far, three enterprises, Sinopharm Beijing, Sinopharm Wuhan and Sinovac, have reached their 2020 goals of production capacity construction, said Mao Junfeng, an official of the consumer goods department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, during a new conference held in Beijing.

Special attention was paid to Sinopharm Beijing, he said, as a COVID-19 vaccine it developed obtained conditional market approval on Wednesday, and the enterprise has already started production of the vaccine.

Mao said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has closely followed updates on the domestic research and development of COVID-19 vaccines, and has worked to accelerate the industrialization of its production.

The ministry also guided enterprises to assess and analyze risks facing key raw materials and equipment to ensure the stability of the production and supply chain of the COVID-19 vaccine, he added.

The ministry is also urging enterprises to further expand their production capacity. As time goes by, the production capacity for COVID-19 vaccine will keep increasing to meet high domestic demand, Mao said.