HONG KONG (AP) – Hong Kong suspended use of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday after the Chinese distributor informed the city that one batch had defective bottle lids.
The city government said the suspension was immediate, while the matter is being investigated by distributor Fosun Pharma and BioNTech, the German company that developed the vaccine together with US pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
According to the statement, BioNTech and Fosun Pharma have not found any reason to believe that the product is unsafe. However, vaccinations are being discontinued as a preventive and safety measure.
The defective lids were found on vaccines from batch number 210102. A separate batch of vaccines, 210104, will also not be administered.
Macau also said on Wednesday that residents would not receive the affected party’s Pfizer vaccinations.
BioNTech and Fosun Pharma were not immediately available for comment.
All community centers in Hong Kong that administer the Pfizer vaccine have temporarily suspended vaccinations, and residents who have already made appointments for Wednesday will not need to go to the centers, the government said.
The suspension of the Pfizer shot means that the only vaccine currently offered to residents is the Chinese Sinovac vaccine. The two vaccines are the only ones offered to Hong Kong residents.
German expat Jannis Partsafas belonged to a group of people who received the Pfizer shot for the suspension.
“I was vaccinated this morning at 8:30 am before news of the vaccine suspension went public, and heard the news on my way home,” said 32-year-old Partsafas, who works in the sporting goods industry.
“I am not much concerned about safety, but I am concerned that this could mean that more people will turn down the option to get vaccinated in Hong Kong, which would have an impact on the herd’s immunity and withdrawal social distance measures, ”he said.
Some residents who had an appointment Wednesday morning lined up for a community center that administered the Pfizer vaccinations in the city’s Sai Ying Pun neighborhood at about 10:30 a.m. They eventually left the center when it became clear that no vaccines would be administered.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, 403,000 people have received vaccines in the city, of which 150,200 had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, compared to 252,800 who had taken the Sinovac shot.
This story has been corrected to state that the defective batch number is 210102.