Reasons Hong Kong May Throw Hundreds of Thousands of Doses of Pfizer’s Coronavirus Vaccine

While in Argentina and much of the world vaccines against the coronavirus are scarce, Hong Kong could throw away hundreds of thousands of doses because their expiration date is approaching and there what is rare, it is the candidates to receive them, warned a local authority on Tuesday.

The former British colony is one of the few places in the world that has been able to obtain additional doses to inoculate its population of 7.5 million, but mistrust of the government, combined with disinformation on social networks and rare cases of contagion, low level of vaccination.

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On Tuesday, a member of the government vaccines commission warned that Hong Kong people “only have a three-month window” before the first batch of vaccines expires. Pfizer-BioNTech.

“These vaccines have an expiration date,” he warned over the radio. RTHK Thomas Tsang Ho Fai, former controller of the Center for Health Protection.

“They cannot be used after the expiration date and BioNTech’s community vaccination centers will cease to operate in September, as planned, ”he added.

Tsang added, “In Hong Kong we are very lucky because we have enough vaccines for everyone, in theory, our problem is people don’t show up as much as we would like ”.

Until now only 19% of the city’s population received a dose some vaccines, while 14% received both doses.

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Even among health workers, there are doubts about receiving vaccines. The city’s hospital authority revealed this month that only a third of its staff have been vaccinated.

The official also warned people that “the whole world is fighting for vaccines” and that “what we have is probably all we will have this year”.

Hong Kong has received 3.26 million doses of vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, but only 1.23 million were injected. About 1.19 million were sent back to Germany for packaging problems. There are approximately 823,000 doses left unused that could be thrown away, the newspaper said Morning Message from South China.

Hong Kong also received two million doses of Sinovac, about half of which have been administered, but this vaccine can be stored for a little longer (one year).

The government is considering various measures to increase the vaccination rate, such as giving officials a day off to get vaccinated. But they ruled out economic incentives as “inappropriate”,

The Hong Kong authorities’ warning comes as other parts of the world, such as Latin America, seek vaccines to fight strong outbreaks of COVID-19.

On Monday, Argentina and five other countries in the region called on the international community for equitable access to vaccines and for rich countries to share their surpluses.