A resident gives a thumbs up at the waiting area of a Community Vaccination Centre set up in the Exhibition Gallery of the Hong Kong Central Library, on Feb 23, 2021. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government said there was no evidence that called for doubting the safety of the two COVID-19 vaccines currently available in Hong Kong.
Referring specifically to the Sinovac vaccine, the government, in a press release issued early Thursday, refuted suggestions that sufficient data on the Sinovac vaccine wasn't available.
A government spokesman said an expert committee would conduct casualty assessments of all important adverse events following vaccination in Hong Kong
Citing data provided by Sinovac to Hong Kong's Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines, the government pointed out that, "in the Phase 3 clinical trials conducted in Brazil (mainly targeting around 12,000 healthcare workers aged above 18, including around 600 elders aged above 60, who have contact with COVID-19 patients), for the around 10,000 trial participants who received two doses of the Sinovac vaccine, the overall vaccine efficacy was 50.65 percent after 14 days."
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It also cited manufacturer data to say that groups that "experienced symptoms and required medical attention or had more severe conditions, the efficacy of the Sinovac vaccine was 83.7 percent".
In the press release, a Hong Kong government spokesman said that clinical trial statistics of the Sinovac vaccine suggested that, so far, there was "no evidence indicating a direct causal relationship" between receiving the vaccine and adverse events such as deaths.
The spokesman said an expert committee would conduct casualty assessments of all important adverse events following vaccination in Hong Kong.
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On Wednesday, 24,500 Hong Kong residents received their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine – the highest daily number since the vaccination program began on Feb 26.
So far, around 189,600 people received the first dose of the Sinovac vaccine and 64,300 were injected with the BioNTech vaccine.
Of them, 53,000 had received the Sinovac vaccine from doctors in private practice. More than 1,200 such doctors are complementing the government vaccination program and health authorities have so far allocated them 160,000 doses for the purpose.