Hong Kong Will Donate Surplus BioNTech Vaccine

What’s new: Hong Kong will donate excess doses of the BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine through channels such as through the World Health Organization as fewer residents than expected chose to receive the shot, the local government said.

The special administrative region’s government has ordered a total of 7.5 million doses of BioNTech vaccine, of which over 1.24 million doses have been administered as of Monday, with about 840,000 left unused in storage, the government said in a statement Tuesday.

As vaccinations in the city have tapered off and fewer people want the BioNTech vaccine, the Hong Kong government estimated that the unused doses of the vaccine in storage would be enough to meet local demand before they expire in mid-August.

Thus the Hong Kong government expected “surplus doses” of its total purchase for local use and decided to take measures to avoid wasting doses amid tight global supply, the statement said.

Those measures include “postponing or cancelling delivery of certain batches or donating them to places that are more in need of the vaccines through channels such as the World Health Organization COVAX Facility,” it said.

The background: As of Tuesday, only 17% of the city’s 7.5 million people had received a Covid-19 vaccine shot. The local government has observed “sluggish demand” for the BioNTech vaccine, the statement said.

The strict storage requirements for the BioNTech vaccine also pushed the Hong Kong government to make the decision. The vaccine needs to be stored at an ultra-low temperature and it has a relatively short expiry date from the time of manufacture.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use.

Contact reporter Lu Zhenhua (zhenhualu@caixin.com) and editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

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