Government to set up kids-only vaccination center to administer BioNTech vaccine

A designated vaccination center will be set up for children aged five to 11 to receive one-third of the adult dosage of the BioNTech vaccine, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said on Saturday. 

The government will also allow these kids to receive the Sinovac vaccine at community vaccination centers and private clinics starting next week, Nip added. 

Speaking on a radio program this morning, Nip said there are about 400,000 children aged five to 11 in Hong Kong, and it is not enough to have only one designated vaccination center for administering BioNTech vaccine to kids. 

The government aims to set up vaccination centers for kids across the city, where both the Sinovac and the BioNTech vaccine will be administered. 

He continued that the government would discuss with the Education Bureau and schools to arrange outreach vaccination work on administering the Sinovac vaccine to kids. 

As for the reduced dosage of BioNTech vaccine for kids, the inoculation procedure will be performed by a pharmacist to “play safe,” Nip noted. Therefore, setting up a designated vaccination center for children to receive the reduced dosage is better. 

The University of Hong Kong vaccination center at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong is willing to coordinate with authorities and switch into a kids-only vaccination center as well, according to Nip. 

On another note, Nip spoke of the incident at a Tin Shui Wai clinic where 36 people received an expired BioNTech vaccine and described it as clearly an error. 

He also said the Department of Health will follow up on the incident and that clinic has been requested to submit a detailed report. He stressed such incidents must be prevented from happening again.