Coronavirus: Hong Kong experts push for Johnson & Johnson vaccine to replace AstraZeneca shots after blood clot report; city confirms 10 cases, 8 imported

Pandemic adviser, top pharmacist both encourage officials to acquire US-produced vaccine said to be 72 per cent effective after just one shot and able to protect against new South African coronavirus variant

The advice follows the release of a Wednesday report that concluded blood clots were a ‘rare side effect’ of the British-Swedish vaccine

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A report released on Wednesday concluded that blood clots could be a ‘rare side effect’ of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 1:14pm, 8 Apr 2021Updated: 10:58pm, 8 Apr 2021

Hong Kong medical experts have called on the government to replace its procurement of AstraZeneca Covid-19 shots with jabs developed by Johnson & Johnson amid safety concerns over a possible link between the British-Swedish vaccine and blood clots.

Their advice came on Thursday as the city confirmed 10 coronavirus cases, eight of which were imported, mainly from the Philippines and Indonesia.

The sole local untraceable case was a 70-year-old resident of Block 3 of Oi Fai House in Tuen Mun’s Yau Oi Estate, where another infection had been confirmed the previous day.

The new cases raised the city’s overall tally to 11,548, with 205 related deaths.

On Wednesday, a European Medicines Agency (EMA) investigation into the AstraZeneca vaccine concluded that “unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be listed as very rare side effects”.

Britain subsequently said it would offer those aged below 30 an alternative Covid-19 vaccine because of the new evidence.

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