China has arrested the leader of a multimillion-dollar scam that transferred saline and mineral water as Covid-19 vaccines.
The man, who was identified as Kong, researched the packaging designs of real vaccines before making more than 58,000 of his own concoctions.
A number of the vaccines have been smuggled overseas, but it is not known where they were sent.
Kong is among the 70 people arrested for similar crimes.
The arrests, which involved more than 20 cases, took place when Beijing promised to curb fraudulent vaccines.
Although most cases surfaced late last year, new details were released this week.
According to a court ruling, Kong and his team earned a profit of 18 million yuan ($ 2.78 million; £ 2 million) by injecting saline solution or mineral water and selling it as Covid vaccines since August last year.
A group of 600 of these vaccines were sent to Hong Kong last November before being sent abroad. The sales were made on the basis that the vaccines were obtained via ‘internal channels’ from genuine manufacturers.
In other cases, counterfeit vaccines were sold at high prices in hospitals. Other criminals have also done their own vaccination programs and ‘village doctors’ have people vaccinated with fake stab wounds in their homes and cars.
The highest prosecuting body in China, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, has urged local agencies to work with the police to curb such activities.
Officials had hoped to administer 100 million doses of Covid last week, but have so far only vaccinated 40 million people. However, the country has largely succeeded in bringing the pandemic under control with strict lock-in, testing and detection measures.