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 The suspension comes as the Asian financial hub has faced a sluggish
take-up of vaccines due to dwindling confidence in China's Sinovac
vaccine and fears of adverse reactions.
Inoculation centre staff turned away people booked to take the
BioNTech vaccine, with many Hong Kong-ers unsure as to the reason
and asking for explanations. Adding to the confusion, local media
reports said one doctor was reprimanded for promoting the BioNTech
vaccine over Sinovac's.
"As a precautionary measure BioNTech requested the suspension" for
its vaccines in Hong Kong until an investigation is complete, the
city's Director of Health, Constance Chan, told a news conference.
The city started vaccinating residents with doses from Sinovac in
February and began offering the one developed by BioNTech, in March.
The BioNTech vaccine is distributed in Hong Kong and Macau via a
partnership with China's Fosun Pharma, while BioNTech partners with
Pfizer in markets outside greater China.
The BioNTech vaccine has shown greater take-up since its launch.
Over the past week, more than double the number of people have
booked the BioNTech shot compared to Sinovac, according to
government figures. Chan said the government had initially contacted
Fosun Industrial (Hong Kong), the distributor, after it found some
cases of cracks in vaccine containers and stains on some bottles.
She said Fosun replied on Wednesday morning stating that it needed
to further investigate and would suspend vaccination until further
notice.
"BioNTech and Fosun have not found any reason to believe that
product safety is at risk," she said.
Fosun's parent company, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, said in a
filing on Wednesday it was investigating with BioNTech.
BioNTech said in a statement that no other batches to other regions
were affected and it was investigating the root cause.
Macau said on Wednesday it was also suspending the BioNTech vaccine
due to the packaging flaw.
Officials said Sinovac vaccinations would continue to take place as
scheduled.
[to top of second column] |
 WAIT AND SEE
In a separate incident, Hong Kong's government
said it shut a private clinic that administered
COVID-19 vaccines after a physician, named Dr
Lau, "violated an agreement" under the city's
inoculation programme.
Broadcaster RTHK reported that Lau recommended people take the
BioNTech shot, rather than Sinovac's, due to its better
international reputation.
Lau did not immediately respond to requests for comment. His clinic
had been providing Sinovac vaccines and not the BioNTech ones, which
are only available at larger public sector facilities. Distrust of
the mainland has intensified among residents in recent years with
months of anti-government and anti-China protests driven by a
perception that Beijing is pushing the semi-autonomous city onto a
more authoritarian path.
Media reports of several deaths after vaccinations have also kept
some people jittery even though the government has said there was no
direct link.
With low levels of infection in the city, many people are opting to
wait and see before getting a shot.
Only about 5% of Hong Kong's 7.5 million residents have been
vaccinated, and more than one third of them received the BioNTech
shot.
For one 67-year-old resident, who gave his surname as Lau, there was
no question as to which vaccine he was going for on Tuesday - the
BioNTech one.
"It has better data, there are more people getting it
internationally," he said. "The other one, the data is not clear."
City leader Carrie Lam has repeated called for people to get
vaccinated.
"When many places all over the world are scrambling for vaccines, we
have a pretty assured supply," she said on Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Sharon Tam in Hong Kong, Roxanne Liu in
Beijing and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell,
Robert Birsel & Simon Cameron-Moore)
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