Malaria kills over 600,000 each year globally, most of them children in Africa.

Hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the floods are living in the open, and the stagnant floodwaters have led to widespread cases of skin and eyes infections, diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid and dengue fever.

The decision follows a review of a pilot programme deployed since 2019 where more than two million doses were given of the vaccine.

If successful, the vaccine could be a crucial step in the fight against the mosquito-borne disease, which kills more than 400,000 people a year.

No cases were reported in China in the last four years, warranting the malaria-free credential.

Growing mosquito resistance to pesticides, as well as malaria parasite resistance to antimalarial drugs, has created an urgent need for new ways to fight the disease.

In clinical trials, the disease lingered longer in children receiving standard treatment for malaria if they were infected with mutant strains of the disease.

Malaria still kills one child every two minutes around the world.