Govt To Increase Vaccination Slots: Patrick Nip

Secretary for Civil Service Patrick Nip said on Wednesday that more Covid vaccination slots will be up for grabs in the coming few days, after the quotas for the first two weeks of the territory-wide inoculation programme got snapped up by around 70-thousand people.

Nip also told an RTHK radio show that more than 500 people have already received Sinovac jabs before the universal scheme is due to officially start on Friday.

The minister, who’s coordinating the programme, said a computer system glitch had allowed 300 people to get the jabs at the Central Library, while the authorities also inoculated 200 people from different priority groups in a trial run on Tuesday.

As more vaccination centres are set up across the city, he said officials will soon open up more booking slots to cater for the high demand.

"Our vaccination centres are not operating at full capacity at the start... because in the first two weeks we hope to inoculate people in a safe and orderly manner," he said.

"I believe as the operation at the centres becomes smooth, the number [of vaccinations] they can handle will increase."

Nip also pointed out that around 15-hundred private clinics are expected to start giving Sinovac jabs from the middle of next week.

He added that several hundred thousand jabs from German firm BioNtech will arrive in the city on Thursday.