Coronavirus: Hong Kong doctors, patients groups push for better guidance on vaccine side effects as city’s leader says shots are safe

Carrie Lam seeks to assure residents jabs are ‘safe and effective’, while health officials confirm eight new Covid-19 cases

Authorities begin offering German-made BioNTech vaccine to wider public

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A man is placed in an ambulance after experiencing side effects following his inoculation with the BioNtech vaccine. Photo: May Tse

Published: 1:19pm, 10 Mar 2021Updated: 11:49am, 16 Mar 2021

Hong Kong doctor and patient groups have piled pressure on the government to provide better guidance to vulnerable people on the side effects of coronavirus vaccines, even as the city’s leader sought to assure residents the shots were “safe and effective”.

The city began offering the German-made BioNTech vaccine to the wider public on Wednesday, while the take-up rate for the Chinese-made Sinovac continued to fluctuate amid concerns over people seeking hospital treatment after receiving the Covid-19 shot.

Some 72 per cent of people who booked a Sinovac injection turned up for the appointment, compared with 64 per cent on Tuesday and 90 per cent at the scheme’s launch last month. The take-up rate for BioNTech vaccine was 91 per cent, with 5,900 people receiving the shot.

Health experts have warned that the public’s reluctance to get vaccinated could pose a challenge to achieving herd immunity.

Hong Kong confirmed eight new Covid-19 cases and the death of an 86-year-old woman with chronic diseases, taking the total number of related fatalities to 203. The official case tally stands at 11,128.

Six of the latest cases were locally transmitted, including three that were untraceable, while the remaining two were imported from the Philippines. More than 10 people also have tested preliminary-positive, nine of whom were staff members and customers who visited Ursus Fitness in Sai Ying Pun.