Hong Kong and Macau have temporarily suspended Covid vaccines manufactured by BioNTech SE due to a packaging defect, hitting cities’ efforts to revive their pandemic economies.
Both governments said on Wednesday that they had received notifications about defects in the packaging of the bottle. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., which has the rights to develop and market the photos in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have launched an investigation into the problem and say there is no reason to believe that product safety is in jeopardy, according to a statement from the Macau government.
A community vaccination center that administers BioNTech Covid-19 is temporarily closed on March 24.
Photographer: Kyle Lam / Bloomberg
The suspension marks the latest failure to launch the vaccine in Hong Kong, which has been slowed by public distrust of the Beijing-backed government. While the takeover of the BioNTech jab had begun to surpass that of the photos taken by the Chinese company Sinovac Biotech Ltd., concerns about packaging defects risk eroding public confidence in both options.
The Hong Kong banking and business community has been pushing for the city to relax some of the world’s strictest coronavirus isolation measures, but the government has been reluctant to do so until vaccination rates rise. As of Monday, about 5% of the residents of the financial center had received the first vaccines.
Macau casinos fell in the MSCI Hong Kong Index on Wednesday, with Wynn Macau Ltd. and Sands China Ltd. falling by more than 4%. Hong Kong real estate developers, among the most sensitive actions in the local economy, have also fallen.
Residents have signed up en masse for BioNTech photos since Hong Kong expanded adult eligibility decrepit 30-59 earlier this month, an effort to raise vaccination rates to the levels needed to fully reopen the economy.
Confusion reigned Wednesday morning at some vaccination sites in the city. At the Ap Lei Chau Sports Center, employees first told people waiting in line that the day’s shootings would be suspended. Then they reopened the center only to close it again in about an hour. At that time, many people with the oldest appointments had already been blocked.
Outside the vaccination center, the confused residents – some of whom had just received gunshots – asked staff what was going on, only to receive answers that the reason for the suspension was unclear.
– With the assistance of Young-Sam Cho and Natalie Lung