Hong Kong's well being secretary says she is assured that each one its residents will likely be supplied Covid vaccines by the tip of 2021.Town has
Hong Kong’s well being secretary says she is assured that each one its residents will likely be supplied Covid vaccines by the tip of 2021.
Town has signed agreements to acquire greater than sufficient doses for its inhabitants, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Meals and Well being, Sophia Chan, instructed CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Tuesday.
In response to a query on when Hong Kong might attain herd immunity, Chan mentioned authorities are nonetheless gauging the response to vaccinations in addition to watching the supply procurement schedule. She didn’t present a timeline for when town might hit herd immunity, a scenario the place sufficient individuals within the inhabitants have change into resistant to a illness, in order that it successfully stops spreading rampantly.
“We’re fairly assured that by the tip of the yr … all people in Hong Kong will likely be offered a chance to get (their) vaccination,” she mentioned.
Chan added that greater than 22 million doses of Covid vaccines have already been ordered.
Hong Kong has a inhabitants of round 7.5 million, and started rolling out its vaccination drive in late February. It has signed offers to purchase vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech, Europe’s Oxford-AstraZeneca, in addition to one equipped by Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma and its companion, German drugmaker BioNTech.
Clients purchase recent greens from a avenue market store in Hong Kong on March 8, 2021.
Anthony Wallace | AFP | Getty Photographs
Chan mentioned individuals appear “fairly enthusiastic” about being vaccinated to this point, however acknowledged that they’re nonetheless rolling it out in phases and it is not but obtainable to the entire inhabitants.
She additionally mentioned consultants are reviewing the explanations behind antagonistic occasions together with a minimum of two deaths following vaccination.
“Our scientific committee has initially offered the data that it has nothing to do with the vaccination. That’s, they don’t discover any direct causality with the vaccination,” she mentioned.
Individually, Chan weighed in on when Hong Kong would loosen its coronavirus restrictions, saying town’s authorities will likely be “very cautious” about doing so.
She mentioned the scenario stays “somewhat bit unstable” as a result of unlinked circumstances are nonetheless being reported regardless of new circumstances being low.
“We wish to actually include … and lower the transmission chains in a neighborhood as a result of we don’t want any clusters to come back out,” she mentioned.
On Tuesday, Hong Kong reported 21 new circumstances, bringing the whole variety of infections to a minimum of 11,121, in line with the well being authority there.