HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong suspended the use of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday after its Chinese distributor informed the city that a batch had defective bottle caps.
The city government said the suspension was immediate while the matter is being investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German company that created the vaccine with the American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma found no reason to believe the product was unsafe, according to the statement. However, vaccinations will be suspended as a preventive and safety measure.
Defective caps were found in vaccines in batch number 210102. A separate vaccine batch, 210104, will also not be administered.
Macau also said Wednesday that residents would not receive Pfizer vaccines from the affected lot.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma could not be reached immediately for comment.
All community centers in Hong Kong that administer the Pfizer vaccine have temporarily suspended vaccinations and residents who have already made appointments for Wednesday do not need to go to the centers, the government said.
The suspension of the Pfizer jab means that the only vaccine currently offered to residents is China’s Sinovac vaccine. The two vaccines are the only ones offered to Hong Kong residents.
German expatriate Jannis Partsafas was among a group of people who were shot by Pfizer before the suspension.
“I was vaccinated this morning at 8:30 am, before the news became public about the suspension of the vaccine, and I heard the news when I was coming home,” said Partsafas, 32, who works in the sporting goods industry.
“I am not very concerned about security, but I am concerned that this may mean that more people will refuse the option to be vaccinated in Hong Kong, which would affect the herd’s immunity and the lifting of social distance measures,” he said.
Some residents who had appointments on Wednesday morning stood in line outside a community center that administered Pfizer vaccines in the city’s Sai Ying Pun neighborhood at around 10:30 am. They finally left the center when it became clear that no vaccine would be administered.
As of 8 pm on Tuesday, 403,000 people received vaccines in the city, of which 150,200 received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, compared with 252,800 who received the Sinovac vaccine.
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This history has been corrected to state that the defective batch number is 210102.