Hong Kong suspends AstraZeneca vaccine order

Hong Kong confirmed Friday, April 9 that it has asked AstraZeneca to suspend the application for Covid-19 vaccines due to concerns about side effects and concerns about their effectiveness against new variants of the Coronavirus.

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On Wednesday, the European regulatory authority recognized that blood clots should be listed as a side effect.very rareOf AstraZeneca vaccine, which has led many countries to suspend vaccination with this vaccine for people who have not reached a certain age. The British government made an effort on Thursday to reassure residents about the safety of vaccines, believing that the risk of contracting a serious disease from Covid-19 is much greater.

Hong Kong Health Minister Sophia Chan said on Friday that she had asked AstraZeneca not to deliver the vaccine doses due to arrive this year. “We believe there is no need for AstraZeneca to deliver vaccines to the city later this year.“She said, adding that Hong Kong wants to.”Avoid any waste due to its scarcity across the planetThe wealthy financial center has secured the delivery of the vaccine to 7.5 million people. It has signed contracts worth 7.5 million doses with the US-German alliance Pfizer / BioNTech BioNTech / Pfizer and the Chinese laboratory, Sinovac, who have begun delivering them.

Other vaccines?

However, Sophia Chan explained that Hong Kong also wants to study the possibility of obtaining other vaccines with better effectiveness on variants of the Corona virus. Earlier this week, David Howe, a public health expert and government advisor, called on Hong Kong to replace AstraZeneca with a single-dose vaccine produced by Johnson and Johnson.

Densely populated, Hong Kong, which has a population of around 7.5 million, shows very little pollution thanks to severe restrictions and a well-respected mask. Since the start of the pandemic, the city has recorded more than 11,000 cases and attributed 205 deaths to Covid-19.

Although Hong Kong has a regular and adequate supply of vaccines, residents appear reluctant to get vaccinated, especially in the context of mistrust of the pro-Beijing government. So far, about 529,000 people have only received the first dose. Public confidence was also damaged by some executive decisions, which urgently approved the Sinovac vaccine despite poor results in terms of efficacy. In addition, he has suspended his vaccination campaign for ten days with Pfizer / BioNTech serum because the packages have defects in the packages.