Coronavirus: Hong Kong will consider allowing residents to receive new Omicron-specific vaccine as third shot, official says

About 11,600 residents have registered for the second-generation BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine since bookings opened on Sunday

Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung says officials will ‘still need to monitor the situation’ when discussing whether to allow new vaccine as a third dose

3-MIN READ3-MIN

Hong Kong already has a high vaccination rate, a government official says. Photo: SCMP

Published: 1:28pm, 28 Nov 2022Updated: 7:56pm, 28 Nov 2022

Hong Kong will consider allowing residents to receive BioNTech’s Omicron-specific vaccine as their third coronavirus shot, the official overseeing the city’s Covid-19 inoculation drive has said.

Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan on Monday also said officials would still need to monitor the pandemic situation, while 11,600 residents registered for the second-generation Covid-19 vaccine after bookings opened on Sunday.

Government pandemic adviser Professor David Hui Shu-cheong told the Post the joint scientific committees would discuss whether to allow the new vaccine as a third dose within one to two weeks.

Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said experts from the committees would rely on scientific data to make their decision.

“Experts will consider the supply of [the] new vaccine and the overall situation of pandemic development to make modifications,” Lo said.

William Chui Chun-ming, president of the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Hong Kong, said he hoped the government would allow the elderly to receive the bivalent vaccine as their first to third shots, as he believed this would give them more of an incentive to get inoculated.