Hong Kong and Macau temporarily suspended Covid vaccines manufactured by BioNTech SE due to a packaging defect, hampering cities’ efforts to revive their pandemic-affected economies.
Both governments said on Wednesday that they had received notifications about packaging defects in vials of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., which has the right to develop and market vaccines in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have initiated an investigation into the matter and say there is no reason to believe that the product’s safety is at risk, according to a statement from the Macau government.
A community vaccination center that manages BioNTech Covid-19 is temporarily closed on March 24.
Photographer: Kyle Lam / Bloomberg
The suspension marks the latest setback for the vaccine’s launch in Hong Kong, which has been slowed by public mistrust in the Beijing-backed government. While the acquisition of the BioNTech jab started to surpass the shots made by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd., concerns about packaging defects risk undermining public confidence in both options.
Hong Kong’s business and banking community has been pushing for the city to relax some of the world’s most stringent coronavirus containment measures, but the government has been hesitant to do so until vaccination rates rise. As of Monday, about 5% of financial center residents had received their first vaccines.
Macau casinos led the falls on the Hong Kong MSCI Index on Wednesday, with Wynn Macau Ltd. and Sands China Ltd. sinking more than 4%. Hong Kong’s real estate developers, one of the stocks most sensitive to the local economy, also plummeted.
Residents enlisted en masse for BioNTech photos since Hong Kong expanded adult eligibility aged 30-59 earlier this month, an effort to raise vaccination rates to the levels needed to fully reopen the economy.
Confusion reigned in some vaccination sites in the city on Wednesday morning. At the Ap Lei Chau Sports Center, officials first told people waiting in line that the photos of the day would be suspended. They then reopened the center only to close it again within about an hour. At that time, many people with their first appointments had already been beaten.
Outside the vaccination center, confused residents – some of whom had just received the vaccines – questioned officials about what was going on, only to get answers that the reason for the suspension was unclear.
– With the help of Young-Sam Cho and Natalie Lung