HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam got China’s Sinovac vaccine on Monday together with top officials during a live televised event to strengthen public confidence before the vaccine’s rollout in the global financial hub this week.
Sinovac is the first COVID-19 vaccine that Hong Kong is introducing, ahead of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine likely to arrive in the Chinese special administrative region before the end of February.
The city’s vaccine rollout fell behind other developed cities and is far behind mainland China which begun last July.
Lam, dressed in a white t-shirt, was seen receiving the first vaccine in a centre, which was set up at Hong Kong’s central library. Her cabinet ministers include Health Secretary Sophia Chan and Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung, who are in line to get vaccinated after her.
Lam urged all residents to take the vaccine during a press briefing after her vaccination.
“This requires the full collaboration of the people of Hong Kong to help Hong Kong’s society to recover as soon as possible.”
Health Secretary Chan told the government was trying to reaffirm residents, whose minds were plagued by worries about taking Sinovac. It was stated that standards had not been brought down so as to receive the vaccine and that Beijing was not putting pressure to get it approved.
The former British colony saw the arrival of one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from Beijing on Friday. Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents can get inoculated from February 26 after applying online.
Residents will be given the chance to choose the type of vaccine, the government said.
Hong Kong has sealed a total of 22.5 million doses of COVID vaccines from Pfizer, Sinovac and AstraZeneca. The city has recorded around 10,800 cases since last January and 197 deaths.