CS Seeks To Allay Fears As Woman Dies After Jab

Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung has urged people to focus on the science when it comes to the safety of Covid-19 vaccine.

The minister's appeal comes after a 55-year-old chronically-ill woman who reportedly had high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol, died on Saturday – days after she received the mainland-produced Sinovac jab.

It was the second incident of this sort ever since the territory-wide vaccination programme was rolled almost two weeks ago.

Writing on his blog on Sunday, Cheung says he understands that some people may be worried about getting the jab.

But he called on people to consider the safety of the vaccine based on scientific data, adding that the government will disclose information about the shots in the most “open, transparent and responsible” manner.

The city’s No. 2 official stressed experts have already ruled, according to preliminary information, that the first death was not directly caused by the Sinovac vaccine.

He added that the experts will hold another meeting tomorrow to consider what could've led to the death of the second person.

So far, over 83,000 people have received the Sinovac vaccine, while around 300 got the German-produced BioNTech jabs.