Nearly half of Hongkongers are adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward the mass Covid-19 vaccination program to be launched soon.

This comes as the Food and Health Bureau last Monday approved the emergency use of the Fosun Pharma-BioNTech vaccine, with the first batch set to arrive in the city as early as late February.

The Chinese University's Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies phone interviewed 720 adults from January 15 to 22 and found 45.6 percent preferred to "wait for a while" before joining the program, while just 13.5 percent said they would readily join.

Among those who indicated their willingness to get vaccinated, 64.2 percent said they wanted to do so out of fear of infection or to protect themselves and their families.

Another 13.5 percent said they wanted to help end the pandemic, while 6.9 percent said they had faith in the vaccines.

But 32.7 percent said they refused to get vaccinated due to possible side effects, a lack of trust in the government and no faith in or no knowledge of the vaccines.

Of those who did not explicitly reject the program, the top three choices of vaccine providers are German BioNTech, British-Swedish AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinovac.

Also among them, 11.9 percent said they did not see the point of choosing one vaccine provider over another and would accept any vaccine, while 4.6 percent said they would only like to have the vaccines manufactured by either Germany or the UK.

Nearly seven in 10 were not convinced that the program could be implemented smoothly.

But almost half - 48.3 percent - believed the vaccination program would likely contain the pandemic.

A similar proportion of respondents believe the pandemic situation will be more or less the same in the coming month, while 35.6 percent think it would ease.

Nearly 60 percent said they were somewhat or quite worried about being infected.

Almost 40 percent would like infection control measures to remain the same, but 29 percent said the measures should be tightened.

On the prospects of the local economy, 71.9 percent said they are very or quite worried about economic recession, compared to 22.6 percent who are not.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee yesterday said at a press conference that medical workers and caretakers would be prioritized under the vaccination program, while infrastructure workers would also be among the priority groups.

Chan said the government hopes to establish vaccination centers across the city's 18 districts and they have invited the Hospital Authority as well as private medical organizations, hospitals and clinics to assist in the centers' operations.

She also said the government has appealed to the provider of the German BioNTech vaccines to ensure that Hong Kong's procurement of the jabs would not be affected.

She said the vaccines - scheduled for late-February - are expected to arrive on time after undergoing quality and safety inspections.

Half of citizens to wait and see