BEIJING — A total of 9.47 million children in poverty-stricken areas have benefited from China's nutrition improvement program over the past eight years, according to the National Health Commission.

The program covered all the country's 832 poor counties by 2019, a substantial increase from 100 in 2012 when the program was launched, said He Jinguo, an official with the commission.

With the help of the program, the nutritional status of children in poor areas has been improved, said He.

As part of the program, free nutrition packages are provided to infants aged six to 24 months in contiguous areas of extreme poverty, the official said.