Booking for virus shots after March 11 to start in coming days

Online bookings for getting vaccinated with Sinovac doses after March 11 will start in the next few days as will the window for BioNtech jabs, Hong Kong's civil service chief said on Wednesday (Feb. 24) morning.

Online registration for vaccination started on Tuesday and by 4 pm, slots between Feb 26 and March 11 at five community centers and 18 general out-patient clinics had been fully booked by around 70,000 residents.

Speaking on a radio program, Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen said 532 HK residents had each received a single shot of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday. The vaccination program officially starts on Friday.

More than 1,000 private doctors have also offered their help with vaccinating the public and they can order Sinovac doses from health authorities in the next two days, Nip said. People don't need to register online if they choose to get injected at private clinics.

Nip said "hundreds of thousands of" doses of BioNtech vaccine will arrive in the city on Thursday and bookings for spots at 24 community vaccination centers will start thereafter.

Also on Wednesday morning, the government wrapped up a targeted testing operation in San Po Kong, the first of its kind conducted after the Chinese New Year holidays. Around 520 residents there were tested and no positive cases were found.

Hong Kong logged 12 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, all but one locally transmitted and three untraceable, pushing the city's overall tally to 10,896.

(Source: China Daily)