The Government announced today (March 5) that about 3.8 million extra doses of the Comirnaty vaccine has been purchased to cope with the recent demand for COVID-19 vaccination. Together with the earlier batches, more than 12.3 million doses of the Comirnaty vaccine have been purchased in total. A new batch of about 1.59 million doses of vaccine, manufactured by BioNTech and filled and finished at a plant in Baxter of Germany, arrived in Hong Kong this morning as arranged by Fosun Pharma.
Soon after the arrival of the latest batch of the Comirnaty vaccine, staff carried out stringent checking and inspection on the vaccine in accordance with established procedures to ensure that it complies with the product specifications and that the transportation process follows the relevant cold-chain requirements. The Government will put the vaccine in validated ultra-low temperature freezers to ensure its proper storage in accordance with the temperature specified by the drug manufacturer.
"Under the threat posed by highly transmissible mutant virus strains, eligible persons, both young and old, should get vaccinated as early as possible for self-protection. Both COVID-19 vaccines available in Hong Kong are safe and highly effective in protecting against severe disease and death from COVID-19 infection. To ease the gradually increasing public demand, about 3.8 million extra doses of Comirnaty was purchased. The Government also purchased about 1 million extra doses of the CoronaVac vaccine earlier. We appeal to members of the public who have not received the first and second doses of vaccination to do so early so as to protect themselves, their family members and the community. In addition, more persons will be eligible to receive the third dose of a vaccine later. If we have to cater for third dose vaccination and those who delayed their first and second doses at the same time, it might be possible that both vaccination appointments and vaccines will be in tight supply," a spokesman for the Government said.
Details of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme can be found at the designated website (www.covidvaccine.gov.hk).
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