All HK’s vaccine slots booked in one day
City likely to achieve immunity barrier by end of 2021: experts
On Tuesday, the first day that reservations opened for Hong Kong residents to get their COVID- 19 vaccines, all slots in the following two week were immediately booked. Observers believe that the city may achieve an immunity barrier by year- end.
As of 4 pm on Tuesday, about 70,000 people had reserved their first and second doses online, and all slots available between Friday and March 11 were taken, according to the regional government website.
Some 200 people were expected to get their first shots on Tuesday afternoon but the program will only officially start on Friday at five community centers and 18 general outpatient clinics across the city, the regional government said.
Macao started a massive vaccination project on Monday and some 15,000 residents had signed up for the vaccines.
To boost public confidence, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam and several secretaries took their first shots of the Sinovac vaccines in a live broadcast on Monday, a day before the city opened the sign- up channel to people from priority groups. Lam said she did not have any adverse effects after the shot.
The online registration website crashed at one point due to the large number of visits on the first sign- up day, said Victor Chan Chi- ho, a community official from the New People’s Party in Hong Kong.
The first five community vaccination centers to commence operations will provide Sinovac vaccines while the 24 community vaccination centers, which will subsequently commence operations, are planning to provide the Fosun Pharma/ BioNTech vaccines.
The Fosun Pharma/ BioNTech vaccine would be delivered to Hong Kong on Thursday at the earliest, Hong Kong Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak- kuen said on Tuesday.
Each community vaccination center with 15 booths can provide around 2,500 shots a day at the most, according to the regional government.
Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, said that the goal for Hong Kong is to get most of its residents, ideally 60 or 70 percent of the total population, vaccinated by the end of 2021.
If Hong Kong can stick to anti- epidemic measures such as wearing masks and washing hands, an immunity barrier can still be achieved when about 30- 40 percent of the population is vaccinated, Jin said, or by the second half of the year.
There have been rumors that the vaccine Lam received was not Sinovac’s, because the syringe used was different from previous ones, in a bid to discourage public confidence in the Hong Kong regional government.
The Global Times learned that the Sinovac vaccine has two types of packages. One is a pre- filled syringe and the other is a bottle, from which vaccine needs to be extracted. The Pharmaceutical Society of Hong Kong has said that the regional government bought vaccines from Sinovac that are in bottles.
Chan said this again reflects the fact that some opposition politicians make groundless speculation to discredit products from the Chinese mainland and discourage the public’s confidence in the regional government.
India holds the rotating chairmanship of BRICS in 2021, and the country will hold the BRICS summit in the second half of the year.
“We support India hosting this year’s BRICS meetings and stand ready to work together with it and other members to strengthen communication and cooperation in various fields,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin on Monday. The statement has attracted the attention of the Indian media.
China’s attitude shows that with the rising uncertainty in the international community, emerging countries need to look to one another for development. BRICS countries are among the largest emerging markets worldwide. Expanding cooperation within the BRICS will not only bring additional development momentum to the five countries, but will also improve their strategic initiative.
What has attracted Indian media’s attention is that despite the border disputes and challenges in China- India ties, Wang still made the above statement. This shows that China doesn’t want to see bilateral disputes affect the cooperation mechanism among the BRICS countries. This is a strategic choice made by a responsible major country from the perspective of the whole picture.
China’s efforts are clear to all in the two decades since the establishment of the BRICS mechanism, acting as an important driving force for the solidification of the mechanism. “Under the current changes worldwide and the COVID- 19 pandemic, China will seek and expand common interests with other member states as always, and is still willing to develop together with other BRICS countries, including India,” Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
China and India have achieved a smooth completion of disengagement of frontline troops in the Pangong Tso area. The two countries also held the 10th round of China- India Corps Commander Level Meeting on Saturday, and both agreed to follow the important consensus of their state leaders and push for a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues.
As the COVID- 19 pandemic is still raging, there is much room for cooperation among BRICS countries, including China and India. China and India are the two largest economies in BRICS. In this context, India should also have the strategic wisdom to set aside bilateral disputes and stick to the BRICS cooperation framework.
“India regards BRICS as another important mechanism to enhance its status as a major power and participate in global governance.” Qian said.
India should meet China halfway and downplay geopolitical issues and China- India disputes under the BRICS framework. New Delhi should not prevent member countries from reaching a consensus. After all, this is also what India should do as the country has assumed the chairmanship. China- India disputes should not affect the BRICS framework.
If India fails to see this, it will be an irresponsible act for the development of the country and the other four members.