Hong Kong to kick off vaccination drive with Sinovac jab on Feb 26

Hong Kong’s coronavirus vaccination drive will begin next Friday, with health workers and vulnerable groups first in line.

The program will start with the first million doses of the Chinese mainland-made Sinovac vaccine which will arrive in the city on Friday afternoon, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said at a briefing on Thursday.

Following Sinovac, the first 1 million BioNtech shots are expected to be delivered to the city before the end of February, Nip said. Hong Kong’s health chief approved the emergency use of Sinovac vaccine on Thursday and that of BioNtech last month.

An online reservation system will open from Tuesday to an estimated 2.4 million target audience, Nip said. They include front-line medical staff, people aged 60 or older, care home residents and employees, those who provide essential public services such as cleaners and disciplinary service officers, as well as providers of cross-boundary transport services.

Twenty-nine community inoculation centers will be set up across the city, five serving Sinovac vaccines and the rest BioNtech, Nip said, adding that people can receive injections at the five centers and 18 general outpatient clinics operated by the Hospital Authority from Feb 26.

The injections will be offered later at more than 1,500 private clinics and elderly and disabled care homes in the city, Nip added. The program will be expanded to cover residents aged 16 to 59 with chronic illnesses and then people younger than 60.

Describing the vaccination program as a milestone in Hong Kong’s fight against the pandemic, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said on her social media page that she will receive the Sinovac shots.

Hong Kong logged eight new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, all locally transmitted and three untraceable, bringing the city’s overall tally to 10,820.

Also on Thursday, the city’s coronavirus curbs, which took effect in early December to contain the fourth wave of infections, were partially eased. Restaurants can provide dinein service until 10 pm with up to four patrons per table, while leisure venues such as cinemas, gyms, beauty and massage salons, as well as theme parks, can resume business.

Meanwhile, scanning QR codes has become commonplace for Hong Kong people who want to eat out or enter entertainment venues. According to Lam, as of Wednesday night the city’s contact tracing app, LeaveHomeSafe, had been downloaded more than 1 million times.

The Hong Kong Massage Association and industry representatives on Thursday welcomed the much-awaited reopening, saying the industry is well prepared to fulfill the government’s infection control rules to assure the safety of customers and will work hard to make up for the losses over the past 70 days when they were closed.