Matthew Cheung Kin-chung at a media briefing on November 24, 2019. (Photo: cnsphoto)
Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong SAR Cheung Kin-chung wrote in an official government blog on Sunday that the first batch of vaccines for COVID-19 will arrive in Hong Kong next month.
The government's goal is to provide vaccines to the majority of Hong Kong citizens in 2021, through a government-led vaccination program to allow citizens to access vaccination freely and on a voluntary basis, said Cheung.
Cheung noted that the first batch of vaccines will give priority to high-risk groups such as medical staff, the elderly, chronically ill, and elderly or disabled employees in institutions.
The government has reached a preliminary agreement with Sinovac (Hong Kong) to provide 7.5 million doses of the vaccine to Hong Kong. The first batch of 1 million doses is expected to arrive in Hong Kong as soon as January next year.
In addition, Cheung said that the government has also reached an agreement with Fosun Pharma to obtain up to 7.5 million doses of mRNA vaccines developed by Fosun and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which will be produced in Europe.
Cheung said that Hong Kong has launched emergency legislation to allow the emergency use of any vaccines that have been proven safe and effective in Hong Kong, in order to expedite the registration process of vaccines so that the vaccines can be used as soon as possible.
More restriction policies will be implemented in Hong Kong to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including entry control measures, increase test volume and strict punishment of violation of related rules, said Cheung.
