The Hong Kong health secretary says she is confident that all Covid vaccines will be offered to all residents by the end of 2021.
The city signed agreements to obtain more than enough doses for its population, Hong Kong Health and Food Secretary Sophia Chan told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday.
In response to a question about when Hong Kong could achieve collective immunity, Chan said the authorities are still evaluating the response to vaccines, as well as looking at the schedule of delivery purchases. It did not provide a timeline for when the city could achieve collective immunity, a situation in which a sufficient number of people in the population have become immune to a disease, so that it effectively stops spreading violently.
“We are very confident that by the end of the year … everyone in Hong Kong will have the opportunity to be vaccinated,” she said.
Chan added that more than 22 million doses of Covid vaccines have been ordered.
Hong Kong has a population of about 7.5 million and started its vaccination campaign in late February. It signed agreements to buy vaccines from Sinovac Biotech in China, from Oxford-AstraZeneca in Europe, as well as one provided by Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma and its partner, the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech.
Customers buy fresh vegetables at a street store in Hong Kong on March 8, 2021.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Images
Chan said that people seem “quite enthusiastic” about the vaccination so far, but acknowledged that the vaccine is still being implemented in phases and is not yet available to the entire population.
She also said that experts are reviewing the reasons behind the adverse events, including at least two deaths after vaccination.
“Our scientific committee initially gave the information that it has nothing to do with vaccination. In other words, they find no direct causation with vaccination, ”she said.
Separately, Chan pondered when Hong Kong would loosen its restrictions on coronavirus, saying city officials would be “very careful” in doing so.
She said the situation remains “a little unstable” because unrelated cases are still being reported, although the number of new cases is low.
“We really want to contain … and cut the transmission chains in a community because we don’t want any clusters to come out,” she said.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong registered 21 new cases, bringing the total number of infections to at least 11,121, according to the local health authority.