Hong Kong yesterday suspended use of the Pfizer vaccine after its Chinese distributor informed the government that one batch had defective bottle lids.
The government said the suspension was immediate while the matter is investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German company that created the vaccine with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have not found any reason to believe the product is unsafe, the statement said.
Photo: Bloomberg
However, vaccinations have been halted as a preventive and safety measure.
The defective lids were found on vaccines from batch number 210102. A separate batch of vaccines, 210104, will also be not be administered.
Macau yesterday said that its residents would not receive the Pfizer shots from the same batch.
The vaccines from the batch comprise a total of 585,000 doses, with the other batch number 210104 holding 758,000 doses, Hong Kong Director of Health Constance Chan (陳漢儀) said.
Although about 150,000 doses from batch number 210102 have been administered in the territory so far, officials told a news briefing yesterday that the vaccines were safe to us, despite the packaging defects, and that suspending the vaccination was a precautionary measure.
Batch number 210104 remains in the warehouse and has not been used.
Chan said that there were more than 40 instances when medical personnel found defective packaging, such as cracks on the vaccine bottles or leakages when the vaccine was diluted with saline before being administered.
None of these vaccines was given to residents and they were thrown away, officials said.
“Fosun has promised to carry out an immediate investigation, so they are going to approach the manufacturer in Germany to look into their plant,” Chan said. “When the vaccines arrive in Hong Kong, they will have a review of the whole logistics chain to see if that’s the cause of the current situation.”
She said that officials are urging manufacturers to give a report as soon as possible to check if the batches of vaccines in Hong Kong can be used, otherwise the manufacturers will have to deliver another batch of shots as soon as possible.
Residents who are slated to receive their second Pfizer dose starting on Saturday should get the second shot administered as soon as possible, if new vaccines arrive in Hong Kong after the recommended 19 to 42-day window following the first dose.
BioNTech could not be immediately reached for comment.
Fosun Pharma said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it received notice from BioNTech regarding the packaging defects on Tuesday night, and informed Hong Kong and Macau authorities yesterday to temporarily suspend the vaccines.
The suspension of the Pfizer jab means the only vaccine currently offered to residents is China’s Sinovac.
The two vaccines are the only ones that were offered to residents in Hong Kong.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
A US federal judge on Tuesday ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt efforts to shut down Voice of America (VOA), Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks, the news broadcasts of which are funded by the government to export US values to the world. US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), ordered the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume radio, television and online news broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000
RSS