HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong suspended the use of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday after its Chinese distributor informed the city that a batch has defective glass caps.
The city government said the suspension was immediate, while the matter is being investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German company that created the vaccine with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
According to the statement, BioNTech and Fosun Pharma found no reason to believe that the product was unsafe. However, vaccinations will be stopped as a preventive and safe measure.
Defective caps were found on vaccines in batch number 210102. Also, a separate batch of vaccines, 210104, will not be administered.
Macao also said on Wednesday that residents would not receive Pfizer vaccines from the affected group.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma could not be reached for comment immediately.
All Hong Kong community centers that administer the Pfizer vaccine have temporarily suspended vaccinations, and residents who have already made appointments for Wednesday should not go to the centers, the government said.
The suspension of the Pfizer jab means that the only vaccine currently offered to residents is the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. The two vaccines are the only ones offered to Hong Kong residents.
German expatriate Jannis Partsafas was among a group of people who received the Pfizer shot before the suspension.
“I got vaccinated this morning at 8:30, before the news broke about the suspension of the vaccine, and I heard the news when I was on my way home,” said 32-year-old Partsafas, who works in the article industry. sports.
“I am not very worried about safety, but I am worried that this could mean that more people will refuse the option to get vaccinated in Hong Kong, which would affect the immunity of the herd and the lifting of social distance measures,” he said.
Some residents who had appointments on Wednesday morning stood in line outside a community center that administers Pfizer vaccinations in the Sai Ying Pun neighborhood at about 10:30 a.m. They eventually left the center when it became clear that no vaccines would be given.
As of 20:00, on Tuesday, 403,000 people had received vaccines in the city, of which 150,200 had received the first dose of Pfizer vaccine, compared to 252,800 who had taken Sinovac.
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This story has been corrected to state that the defective batch number is 210102.