Reuters could not immediately establish if the deaths were due to COVID. The NHC also reported 1,995 symptomatic infections for Dec. 18, compared with 2,097 a day earlier. A hashtag on the two reported COVID deaths quickly became the top trending topic on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform on Monday morning. But it is not just the elderly that are wary of vaccines in China. While China's medical community in general doesn't doubt the safety of China's vaccines, some say questions remain over their efficacy compared to foreign-made mRNA counterparts.

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