Online Queue Expected For BioNTech Jabs: IT Chief

The Secretary for Innovation and Technology, Alfred Sit, on Tuesday said the government has increased the capacity of its vaccination booking website, but he said people might still have to queue online for some time when appointments open for the coronavirus jabs made by German drug-maker BioNTech on Wednesday.

He said more than 100,000 people logged on at the same time when bookings for mainland-made Sinovac vaccines reopened on Monday morning for people in high priority groups, and some of them had to wait for more than an hour to gain access.

Sit told an RTHK programme that when the vaccination programme was rolled out last week, the website could accommodate 250 users per minute. He said the capacity has since been increased to 1,300.

He appealed for patience, saying there will be enough jabs for everyone in Hong Kong.

“We understand very well that people would like to have the vaccination as soon as possible, but the supply of vaccines at the beginning is limited. Please be patient. We do have sufficient vaccines to be provided to all people in Hong Kong,” he said.

“We have already enhanced our system to increase the handling capacity. But I would expect there would still be some possibility there will be some waiting time.”

Sit also said he was happy that more than three million people had downloaded the government's LeaveHomeSafe app, which alerts users if they were at a venue at the same time as a newly confirmed Covid-19 patient.

He said so far 70 coronavirus patients had recorded their whereabouts on the app before they were confirmed to have the infection.