A resident takes an inhaled COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose at a hospital in Shanghai, China October 26, 2022.(Photo: REUTERS)

Chinese regulators approved the vaccine, produced by Chinese pharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics for use as a booster in September.

And now the first people are starting to receive the vaccine, which is inhaled via the mouth from a vessel that looks like a take-out coffee cup with a short mouthpiece.

Erwin Loh, chief medical officer at St Vincents Health Australia, said the advent of inhaled vaccines was important not only because of their potential to guard against infection, but also because they could lessen vaccine hesitancy.