Vaccines From The Mainland To Arrive Next Month

Chief Executive Carrie Lam says the government has secured 7.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine from mainland company Sinovac, as well as the same number of doses of the vaccine jointly developed by drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech.

Lam said on Friday that the first 1 million doses from Sinovac will arrive in Hong Kong in January, and a million from Pfizer/BioNTech will be delivered during the first quarter of next year.

She said the government is finalising an agreement with AstraZeneca, which is developing another coronavirus vaccine with Oxford University, for 7.5 million jabs, some of which will hopefully be sent to Hong Kong in the second half of 2021.

The CE said the authorities' goal is to acquire enough doses to give each person in the territory vaccines from two different manufacturers.

With double doses needed for the vaccines, the government will need to buy more from a fourth manufacturer, she added, without saying which company this would be.

Priority for the first doses will be given to vulnerable groups, including the elderly and chronically ill patients, and those deemed to be at high risk of catching the virus, such as carers in homes and medical staff, Lam said.

She added that hopefully, most Hong Kong people will be inoculated during the course of next year.