A community vaccination center administering the BioNTech Covid-19 was temporarily closed on March 24th.
Photographer: Kyle Lam / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kyle Lam / Bloomberg
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Hong Kong and Macau temporarily suspend Covid vaccines manufactured by BioNTech SE due to a packaging error, causing a knock for vaccination, is seen as the key to reviving the pandemic economies in the cities.
Both governments said on Wednesday they had received notifications about the packaging errors associated with caps on the bottles of the shots. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., which has the right to market it in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have launched an investigation into the issue, saying there is no reason to believe product safety is at risk, according to government statements.
There was no immediate information from any government on how long the suspensions would last or the nature of the defects on the vials. Representatives for BioNTech, headquartered in Germany, could not be reached immediately.
Hong Kong officials will inform the city’s vaccination program at 14:30 local time.
The suspension is the latest setback for the deployment of vaccines in Hong Kong, delayed by public distrust in the Beijing – backed government, and the safety and effectiveness of shots fired by the Chinese firm. Sinovac Biotech Ltd. While the use of the BioNTech jab over the past few days has been better than that of Sinovac, concerns about the lack of packaging could hurt public confidence in both options.
According to the people familiar with the matter, the vaccines in question, 210102, were delivered directly from Germany to Hong Kong and Macau on 27 February. refused to be identified since they are not authorized to speak in public. Of this group, 585,000 doses were delivered to Hong Kong, while 100,000 doses were sent to Macau.
In early March, Hong Kong received another dose of 210104, bringing its total supply of BioNTech shots to 1.3 million. The administration of this group of shots was also stopped out of caution, a government said statement Wednesday.
BioNTech, which is based in Germany, is in charge of vaccine production and Fosun is responsible for local storage and distribution, the two companies said at a briefing in January.
The first batch of BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine imported by Fosun Pharma arrives in Hong Kong on 27 February.
Photographer: Jerome Favre / EPA / Bloomberg
Elsewhere in the world, BioNTech is collaborating Pfizer Inc. and their mRNA recording is one of the most widely used worldwide. The halt in Hong Kong is the first known case of a defect of this nature to occur in BioNTech’s shots, which have been inflicted on more than 60 million people worldwide.
New hurdle
Any significant delay could raise questions for thousands of residents who have received their first BioNTech doses since the city began administering the shots on March 10, and who will return for a second in the coming weeks.
The recommended window between BioNTech doses is three weeks, but the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the second round can be administered to six weeks later if a delay is unavoidable.
As of Monday, about 5% of financial center residents had received their first vaccine shots. The government has told the Hong Kong business community and banking community that local coronavirus controls, some of the strictest in the world, could not be relaxed before the vaccination rate rose.
Macau casinos led declines in the MSCI Hong Kong index on Wednesday, with Wynn Macau Ltd. and Sands China Ltd. sink more than 4%. Real estate developers in Hong Kong, among the stocks most sensitive to the local economy, have also fallen.
Residents have signed up in large numbers for the BioNTech shots since Hong Kong increased its suitability for adults elderly 30-59 earlier this month, an attempt to raise vaccination rates to the levels needed to fully reopen the economy. The city government said in a text message to people who discussed Wednesday that a “rescheduling arrangement” would be made separately without expanding it.
Vaccination records handed out to residents during their vaccination showed that at least some residents received shots from the group in question.
Annoying distribution
Sending and administering the BioNTech vaccine is difficult.
Each two-milliliter glass bottle has a stopper and a removable plastic cap with an aluminum seal, and contains enough active ingredient to give six doses once diluted with salt. It is to healthcare providers to inject the salt into the original vial to dilute the thawed vaccine, which is then gently inverted ten times – not shaken – to disperse the ingredients.
It is unclear at what stage of the process the vials were spotted in Hong Kong and Macau.
Confusion reigned on Wednesday morning at some vaccinations in Hong Kong. At the Ap Lei Chau Sports Center, staff members first told people waiting in line that the shots of the day would be suspended. After that, they reopened the center to close it within about an hour. By that time, there were already many people with the earliest appointments.
Outside the vaccination center, confused residents – some of whom had just received their shots – asked staff members about what was going on, only to find answers that the reason for the suspension was unclear.
– With the help of Young-Sam Cho and Denise Wee
(Updates with details on the administration of vaccines.)