HK to secure virus vaccines enough for twice its population

HONG KONG – The Hong Kong government plans to procure COVID-19 vaccines to cover twice the population of the financial hub, the city's health chief said on Friday.

The government is taking a two-pronged approach in procuring vaccines, said Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee at a press briefing.

The government has already joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility, which will provide vaccines to 35 percent of Hong Kong people.

She added the government would look into the scientific data in the procurement of vaccines.

"We will also look into the scientific data, and also the latest data provided by different vaccine manufacturers to be scrutinized by the Department of Health's scientific committee so that we can look at the safety, the efficacy as well as the quality of the vaccines to ensure the vaccines that we will be procuring are up to standard," Chan said.

Chan has said earlier that the government would procure at least two types of vaccines from two different manufacturers and two different vaccine platforms.

Regarding the quantity of vaccines, Chan said the government would like to procure the equivalent of at least two times the population of Hong Kong in case one of the vaccines cannot be successfully manufactured.

"All those vaccines are only in their third stage of clinical trials right now. We have to review the data and look at the situation before we can procure those vaccines," Chan said.

"Procuring an amount two times our population would provide a safety net so that if one of the vaccines doesn't work out, we would still have enough vaccines for the people in Hong Kong," Chan said.