Hong Kong Vaccine Surge Sees Majority Pick Sinovac Over BioNTech

(Bloomberg) — More Hong Kong residents are getting their first Covid-19 vaccinations, though the majority are receiving a Chinese immunization that studies have shown gives inadequate protection against the recently arrived omicron strain.

The city administered about 18,000 initial injections on Tuesday, the most in four months, as the highly-transmissible variant began spreading in the community and a looming expansion of the vaccine mandate led many people to fear losing access to restaurants and leisure facilities. The jump in first doses outpaced the roughly 16,400 booster shots given.