Hong Kong govt has mentioned the suspension was quick whereas the matter is investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German firm that created the vaccine with American pharmaceutical agency Pfizer
Representational Image. AFP
Hong Kong: Hong Kong suspended the usage of the Pfizer vaccine Wednesday after its Chinese distributor knowledgeable town that one batch had faulty bottle lids.
The metropolis’s authorities mentioned the suspension was quick whereas the matter is investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German firm that created the vaccine with American pharmaceutical agency Pfizer.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma haven’t discovered any cause to imagine the product is unsafe, in keeping with the assertion. However, vaccinations will probably be halted as a preventive and security measure.
The faulty lids had been discovered on vaccines from batch quantity 210102. A separate batch of vaccines, 210104, can even be not be administered.
The semi-autonomous territory of Macao additionally mentioned Wednesday that its residents won’t obtain the Pfizer pictures from the identical batch.
The vaccines from the batch comprise a complete of 585,000 doses, with the opposite batch quantity 210104 holding 758,000 doses, in keeping with Hong Kong’s Director of Health Constance Chan.
Although about 150,000 doses from batch 210102 have been administered within the metropolis to date, officers mentioned throughout a press briefing Wednesday that the vaccines had been protected to make use of regardless of the packaging defects, and that suspending the vaccination was a precautionary measure. Batch quantity 210104 stays within the warehouse and has not been used.
Chan mentioned that there have been over 40 situations when medical personnel discovered faulty packaging, similar to cracks on the vaccine bottles or leakages when the vaccine was diluted with saline earlier than being administered.
None of those vaccines was given to residents and so they had been thrown away, officers mentioned.
“Fosun has promised to carry out an immediate investigation so they are going to approach the manufacturer in Germany to look into their plant,” Chan mentioned. “When the vaccines arrive in Hong Kong, they will have a review of the whole logistics chain to see if that’s the cause of the current situation.”
She mentioned that officers are urging producers to present a report as quickly as doable to test if the batches of vaccines in Hong Kong can be utilized, in any other case, the producers should ship one other batch of pictures as quickly as doable.
Residents who’re slated to obtain their second Pfizer dose beginning on Saturday ought to get the second shot administered as quickly as doable, if new vaccines arrive in Hong Kong after the really useful 19- to 42-day window following the primary dose.
BioNTech couldn’t be instantly reached for remark.
Fosun Pharma mentioned in a submitting to the Hong Kong inventory change that it obtained discover from BioNTech concerning the packaging defects on Tuesday night time and knowledgeable Hong Kong and Macao authorities on Wednesday to briefly droop the vaccines.
The suspension of the Pfizer jab means the one vaccine at the moment supplied to residents in China’s Sinovac. The two vaccines are the one ones that had been supplied to residents in Hong Kong.
German expatriate Jannis Partsafas was amongst a bunch of people that obtained the Pfizer shot forward of the suspension.
“I got vaccinated this morning at 8.30 am before the news went public about the vaccine suspension, and heard the news when I was on my way home,” mentioned 32-year-old Partsafas, who works within the sporting items trade.
“I’m not very concerned about the safety, but I am worried that this may mean more people will turn down the option of getting vaccinated in Hong Kong which would impact herd immunity and the lifting of social-distancing measures,” he mentioned.
Some residents who had appointments to obtain the Pfizer pictures stood in line exterior a group centre within the metropolis’s Sai Ying Pun neighbourhood at about 10.30 am They finally left when it turned clear the vaccines wouldn’t be administered.
As of eight pm Tuesday, 403,000 individuals have obtained vaccines within the metropolis, of which 150,200 had obtained the primary dose of the Pfizer vaccine, in contrast with 252,800 who had taken the Sinovac jab.
