Hong Kong Suspends Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine Use Over Packaging Defects

Lindsay Eng, 36, got vaccinated at 9:11 a.m. on Wednesday. As she sat in the waiting area afterward, she noticed new people had stopped coming in. When she left the center, staffers were putting up a sign that said the vaccination service had been suspended. A crowd of people who were arriving for their vaccinations were asked questions.

Ms. Eng said she wasn’t particularly worried about her own health but was more concerned that the incident would result in fewer people in Hong Kong getting inoculated.

“Just talking to local people here, it’s pretty clear that there are a lot of people who are saying, ‘Let’s wait and see,’” said Ms. Eng, who is from Toronto but has elderly family members in Hong Kong who are hesitant to receive a vaccine.

Hong Kong officials had reached out to Fosun for answers after receiving reports from frontline workers and pharmacists about defective vials and packaging, Constance Chan, Hong Kong’s director of health, said in a news conference on Wednesday. The defects were found before the doses were administered, she said, adding that workers had been vigilantly inspecting containers and vials.

In all, the government received eight reports of cracked containers, 22 reports of leaks, 16 reports of loose caps and 11 reports of stains or marks on the outside of bottles, Dr. Chan said.

The flawed doses were among a batch of 585,000 doses, with the order number 210102, the Hong Kong government said earlier on Wednesday, citing data from a Hong Kong subsidiary of Fosun. So far, 150,200 people had received shots from that batch, according to the government.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/business/hong-kong-pfizer-biontech-vaccine.html