Hong Kong begins coronavirus vaccination with China's Sinovac

Hong Kong on Fridaybeganitscoronavirus vaccination for the public as the financial hub kickedoff its inoculation drive with the Chinese-made Sinovac coronavirus vaccine.

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The elderly, frontline workers and medical staff have been prioritised at the first stage. The government had earlier approved China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine after a panel of experts fast-tracked its recommendation despite comparatively low efficacy rate.

The advisory panel unanimously supported Sinovac, saying the benefits of authorising its emergency use outweighed the risks unlike other COVID-19 vaccines such as those from Pfizer, Moderna and Astrazeneca - Sinovac is yet to submit its third-phase clinical trial data to medical journals for peer review.

Healthcare workers along with senior citizens are among some 2.4 million people currently prioritized to receive the vaccine shots. A million doses of the Sinovac vaccine had arrived last week as Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam and other government officials were vaccinated first in a bid to bolster confidence in the program.

Several secretaries also took their first shots of the Sinovac vaccines in a live broadcast on Monday, a day before the city opened the vaccination sign-up channel to people from priority groups.

The city which had imposed severe restrictions till February 18 due to a surge in cases began opening up allowing theme parks, cinemas, salons amid strict conditions.

The coronavirus cases in the city had surged to 80 a day in January. Hong Kong authorities have alsosecured over 22 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from Fosun Pharma-BioNTech, Sinovac and Oxford-AstraZeneca.