'Hiccups' Leave Clinic With No Jabs For Mainlanders

A medical service provider says there have been some "hiccups" in the supply of bivalent Covid jabs and it could not start providing them to non-locals on Monday as planned.

Currently, non-residents can get two doses of the first-generation BioNTech vaccine or the Sinovac jab at no cost, but they can only get a free bivalent version of BioNTech if they have received a prior jab in Hong Kong.

Some private clinics like the Virtus Medical Group are offering to sell bivalent jabs to non-locals now that the border with the mainland has further reopened.

The group's Chief Medical Executive, Samuel Kwok, said it may take a few more days for the pharmaceutical company involved to get the jabs ready.

"There are some procedures to get the thing ready...to store the vaccination, transportation and all... We have been informed that it could be ready by this week, but there are a little bit of hiccups that it kind of delayed for a few more days," Kwok said, adding that he wasn't sure about the exact reason for the delay.

Kwok added that other private clinics may have the same issue, given that there is only one provider of the bivalent vaccine.

However, he expressed confidence that the service can begin next week.