A visitor (left) leaves a Covid-19 Pfizer/BioNTech community vaccination centre in Kowloon without being vaccinated after the announcement of the suspension of BioNTech vaccinations in Hong Kong on March 24, 2021. (PETER PARKS / AFP)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong halted online bookings for BioNTech vaccine shots on Thursday morning, a day after their rollout was suspended due to packaging defects.
The BioNTech vaccinations were suspended, pending an investigation by Fosun Pharma into the vaccines’ delivery and storage conditions. BioNTech, the German drugmaker, said there were no safety risks.
The BioNTech vaccinations were suspended, pending an investigation by Fosun Pharma into the vaccines’ delivery and storage conditions
Before the suspension, 1,080 residents were able to get their BioNTech jabs early Wednesday morning. On the other hand, the reservations for Sinovac vaccine shots continued as planned.
Around 9,700 people were inoculated with either Sinovac or BioNTech vaccines on Wednesday. In total, around 412,800 residents had received their first vaccine dose, including 261,500 residents who chose Sinovac while the rest were injected with the BioNTech vaccine.
Residents who received their first BioNTech shot are supposed to receive the second dose starting Saturday.
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Separately, two more Hong Kong residents, both chronically ill, died after receiving coronavirus vaccine jabs, the city’s expert panel tasked to monitor side effects of the vaccines revealed on Wednesday.
They were an 80-year-old woman who was vaccinated on March 2 and died on Friday, and a 60-year-old man who died on Wednesday after getting a shot on March 11.
The expert panel said at a briefing that the death of the woman who had diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease had no direct link to the vaccine based on preliminary autopsy findings.
It added that the cause of the man’s death, initially believed to be due to cardiovascular disease, needed further study.
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Meanwhile, the second batch of about 1 million doses of Sinovac vaccines was delivered to Hong Kong from Beijing on Thursday afternoon, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government said.
Together with the 1 million doses delivered to Hong Kong in February, a total of about 2 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine had arrived in Hong Kong, it added.
Soon after the arrival of the Sinovac vaccine in Hong Kong, working staff immediately carried out stringent checking and inspection on the vaccines to ensure that they comply with the product specifications and their transportation process follows the cold-chain requirements, the HKSAR government said.
Since Hong Kong launched a COVID-19 vaccination program on Feb 26, more than 400,000 people have received their first dose of coronviurs vaccines.
With Xinhua inputs