Coronavirus vaccines could be ready for Hong Kong next April, while social-distancing curbs may remain for rest of 2021, government health adviser says
- Chinese University professor David Hui says pragmatic estimate is for the immunisation programme to roll out in second quarter of 2021
- The government health adviser also urges officials to be on high alert for return of imported cases once city’s third wave of Covid-19 recedes
Covid-19 vaccines will be ready for Hong Kong residents next April at the earliest, but social-distancing rules could remain in place for the rest of 2021 until the city develops herd immunity through the immunisation programme, according to a government health adviser.
David Hui Shu-cheong, of Chinese University, also said on Sunday that the Hong Kong administration must remain vigilant to the ongoing threat of imported cases once the third wave of coronavirus infections comes to an end.
AstraZeneca vaccine delay ‘will not hinder’ Hong Kong plans to secure Covid-19 shots
“I think we don’t need to set aside a lot of resources for community testing in the future. The most important task for Hong Kong is gatekeeping and preventing the next wave from coming,” he said.
“The first three waves were all caused by imported cases ... We need to be careful in stopping travellers from bringing the virus to the city.”
Hong Kong’s tally of coronavirus infections stands at 4,938, with 100 related deaths, after 13 new cases were recorded on Saturday. About 19 more infections are expected on Sunday, the Post has learned.
Hong Kong has adopted a two-pronged approach to securing vaccines. As well as buying directly from manufacturers, the government has joined the global Covax Facility procurement mechanism managed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and two other platforms, Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
Hui previously said the government had reserved enough shots through the WHO programme to initially cover about 35 per cent of the city’s 7.5 million residents.
In a pre-recorded interview with TVB, broadcast on Sunday, Hui said the city authorities referred to manufacturers’ track records and the relevant medical data when procuring several types of vaccine for Hongkongers.
“By the end of the year, the manufacturers will be completing their third-phase studies. If the vaccines are safe and effective, there will be mass production,” he said.
“A pragmatic estimate is that the vaccines will arrive in Hong Kong in the second quarter of next year.”
Hui is a member of the government scientific committee responsible for tracking candidate vaccines in their final stage of development around the world.
His expectation is that the elderly, residents with long-term illnesses, and frontline medical staff will be the first batch of people to be vaccinated.
Asked when Hong Kong would be clear of Covid-19, Hui said herd immunity was usually achieved when about 60 to 70 per cent of the population possessed antibodies through vaccination or recovery from infection.
“By the end of 2021, or beginning of 2022, we can start to have 60 to 70 per cent being vaccinated,” he said, adding that this was only his “optimistic estimate”.
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AstraZeneca, which has agreed to provide nearly three billion shots to governments across the globe, revealed on Tuesday it had halted late-stage trials after a participant experienced “an unexplained illness”.
But Hui previously said the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca in partnership with Oxford University was just one of nine in trials at an advanced stage. Apart from the nine leading candidates, 26 others were about to enter the clinical trial phase, he added.
Asked if social-distancing measures could be extended until the end of next year, Hui said: “You can say so ... personal protective gears are needed – face masks and hand sanitisation are necessary when we take public transport and go to crowded places.”
Hui added that if there were no relevant outbreaks, restaurants could soon be allowed to seat six to a table, up from the current cap of four.
“[But the government] must not repeat what was done on June 19, when the cap was lifted from eight people per table, to no limit at all. That’s when people started to organise large banquets and the risk of infection is very high,” he warned.
