BEIJING -- A total of 11.2 million Chinese children had benefited from the country's nutrition improvement program by the end of 2020, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of the end of last year, the program had covered all the country's 832 impoverished counties since its launch in 2012, the center said.

As part of the program, free nutrition packages are provided to infants aged six to 24 months in places around areas with extreme poverty.

The rates of anaemia and growth retardation among children aged between 6 and 24 months in the areas being monitored were 16.3 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, which decreased by 50.5 percent and 68.3 percent compared with figures for 2012, the center said.