Coronavirus: delivery of first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Hong Kong delayed, but medical source expects jabs to arrive within days
- Instead of delivery on Thursday, manufacturer notified Hong Kong of a delay, a government spokesman said
- Financial Secretary Paul Chan tells Legco ‘priority is to push the vaccination programme’
The delivery of the first batch of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to Hong Kong has been delayed, the government revealed on Wednesday, although a medical source said the jabs were expected to arrive in the next few days.
The setback was announced on Wednesday evening, just hours after Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po used his annual budget address to underscore the importance of Hong Kong’s new vaccination programme.
Instead of delivery on Thursday, the manufacturer had notified Hong Kong of a delay, a government spokesman said. He said the first batch of 1 million doses would be on its way from Germany on two flights “as soon as possible”.
The development came as health officials confirmed 17 new Covid-19 cases citywide. All but one of the latest infections were locally transmitted, and included six untraceable cases. One case was imported from Dubai. About a dozen preliminary-positive cases were also reported.
The source said the delayed doses should be arriving in the next few days.
The BioNTech vaccine, co-developed by firms in Germany and the United States, was originally expected to be delivered as early as Thursday and all production procedures as well as safety and quality tests had already been completed, the government spokesman said.
“According to BioNTech’s report [on Wednesday], the exporting procedure has yet to be completed, so the vaccines would not be delivered from Germany and arriving in Hong Kong tomorrow,” he said.