Hong Kong fourth wave: first Covid-19 vaccines may not prevent infection but can halt…
By: Tena Aktar
Tags: Vaccines, Hong Kong, Health, Covid 19, Waves

Hong Kong fourth wave: first Covid-19 vaccines may not prevent infection but can halt complications, health chief says, as city logs 69 new cases

Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan also says officials can boost public confidence by being among first to take shots Tena Aktar Dec 12, 2020·10 min read

Minister’s comments follow city leader’s announcement a day before on procurement deals

The first Covid-19 vaccines Hong Kong would receive might not protect residents from infection but could prevent health complications arising from the disease, health authorities said on Saturday as they confirmed 69 new cases.

In a bid to reassure the public over the safety of the inoculations, Secretary for Food and Health Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee also said officials could set an example by being the first to take the shots when they became available next month.

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The latest infections mark the fewest in a single day since November 22, when 68 cases were recorded. Nineteen of the new cases were untraceable, while five were imported, and more than 80 people tested preliminary-positive. The city’s overall Covid-19 tally stands at 7,446, with 115 related

deaths.

However, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable

disease branch, said it was too early to say whether the fourth wave of the pandemic was showing signs of easing.

Inside a Sinovac factory in Beijing. Photo: AP

“We have more than 80 cases today that tested preliminary-positive, so tomorrow the number of confirmed cases may be more than today,” Chuang said. “The falling figure today may be due to slower delivery of test samples.”

The health minister earlier said that although the city had signed advance purchase agreements with two pharmaceutical giants and another deal with a third was in the works to provide free shots for the population of 7.5 million people, the government would only proceed to buy them after clinical trials proved they were effective.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor on Friday unveiled deals to secure 15 million shots, with the first million expected to be available next month for high-risk groups under a free, voluntary scheme.

Asked about whether first-generation vaccines might not necessarily prevent infection but could protect against serious health complications arising from Covid-19, Chan said: “What you just said is what some experts have suggested.

“Currently, we are in [the stage of] advance purchase agreements. The Department of Health’s scientific committees and the Centre for Health Protection are getting more data to study them. Generally speaking, it’s like the overall situation you have mentioned.”

She added the length of time the vaccine would be effective would vary depending on the version.

Under the recently revealed deal, Hong Kong will receive 1 million shots of vaccine from mainland Chinese supplier Sinovac Biotech next month at the earliest. Under a distribution agreement with the mainland’s Fosun Pharma, another million shots of a separate vaccine would follow in the first quarter of next year at the earliest. Chan said that vaccine was developed by Fosun, America’s Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, and was manufactured in Europe.

British–Swedish AstraZeneca would also deliver 7.5 million shots to the city in an expected deal in batches from the second half of next year at the earliest.

Chan said that if people were worried about the safety of the vaccines, it would be “no problem” for officials to lead the way. “If this can give residents confidence, we will definitely do it,” she said.

She added that people could report any adverse reactions to the Department of Health, which would conduct an investigation.

Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a government adviser on vaccine procurement, urged residents not to be concerned about the origin of the vaccines, as they had to be proven effective and safe before mass production could begin.

Hui said the shots produced by Pfizer could lower infection rate by 95 per cent and the chance of illness with serious complications.

Dr Wilson Lam, a specialist in infectious diseases, said no vaccine was yet proven to provide 100 per cent protection from the virus.

“It can lower the infection risks and greatly reduce the complications,” he said. “The purpose of taking the vaccine is to protect yourself and the community by achieving herd immunity from 60 to 70 per cent of the population. Then the virus will die down itself and be eradicated.”

Chuang also said health authorities would be handing out specimen collection bottles

to residents of Kwai Tung House at Tung Tau Estate in Wong Tai Sin, as one confirmed case with an unknown source involved a resident.

Six other infected residents had been linked to an existing cluster involving dancing and singing venues, the Lohas Park construction site and another workplace outbreak, Chuang said.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam (left) and Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan. Photo: May Tse

“Because there are already four units [involved], we are distributing specimen bottles to find out more about the situation there. We do not intend to put them under mandatory testing yet,” she said.

Sample bottles distributed on Friday to three other housing blocks with small outbreaks in Wong Tai Sin, Tai Po and Kwun Tong were being returned, Chuang said.

Another of Saturday’s cases was confirmed by postmortem. The 87-year-old man with a long-term illness was found dead at his home on December 2 and was sent to the Fu Shan Mortuary. Chuang said he and a relative might have been infected through a dancing venue in San Po Kong, where they had gone for a meal.

She added health authorities needed more details to confirm whether the two had undergone mandatory testing as ordered by the government for people who visited the dance venues.