There was a temporary suspension of the Covid 19 vaccine usage in Hong Kong. The reason given for the suspension was that the packaging of the vaccine both that was developed by Pfizer and BioNTech was defective. The Hong Kong government issued a statement that said they do not in any way believe that the defective packaging has compromised the vaccine in anyway. The suspension of the vaccine being used was just a preventive measure.
The government continued to state that they had gotten information from Fosun Pharma Industrial in Hong Kong who is the distributor of the Pfizer vaccine and the BioNTech vaccine in the country as well as in Macau. The Pharma Company had found the packaging defect in a vaccine batch which was numbered 210102. The defect was related to the closure of the bottles.
The government made a statement saying “BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have not found any reason to believe that product safety is at risk.” This however did not clarify immediately as to how many of the shots would be affected but it was certain that the using of the vaccine batch numbered 210102 would definitely be suspended as would the use of another batch that was numbered 210104 until it can be confirmed that they are ok to be given to the people. Fosun Pharma didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Several centers around the Asian financial hub were informed by their respective city authorities to stop the usage of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine with immediate effect according to the notices seen by the residents of those areas.
Hong Kong Began vaccinating its residents with doses from China Developed Sinovac Biotech Ltd in February. They then started to offer the Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine to its residents in March.
