Residents fall in line to get inoculated against COVID-19 at the Community Vaccination Centre set up in the Hong Kong Central Library's Exhibition Gallery in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong on Feb 23, 2021. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong saw 104,000 residents receiving their first dose of the vaccine as of Monday even as the city recorded three related deaths and a dip in the number of people turning up to receive the jabs.
In a statement, the government said 101,700 people had received their first dose of the Sinovac vaccine while 2,100 received BioNTech shots under the city’s COVID-19 Vaccination Programme.
In a statement, the government said 101,700 people had received their first dose of Sinovac vaccine while 2,100 had received the BioNTech vaccine
Seventy-two percent of people who had made bookings to get the shots were inoculated, down from over 90 percent at the beginning of the program.
Three persons died in the past week after they got their jabs but the city’s expert panel on vaccination said two of them were not directly linked to the vaccines after a review of their preliminary autopsy reports. The panel is still examining the third case.
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Speaking in a radio program, University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung urged the public to remain calm, pointing out that, every 10 days in the city, 13 residents die of diabetes-related illnesses while 103 die due to heart disease.
He added that the BioNTech vaccine had been proven safe, with tens of millions of people aged over 70 getting inoculated with it in the West.
HKU's Ivan Hung, the convenor of expert panel, said it was not necessary to stop the program as it would take months or half a year to examine the overall death rates and side effects of the Sinovac vaccine.
People also need to receive both doses of the vaccine, he added.
READ MORE: CHP: No evidence BioNTech vaccine led to elderly deaths