Coronavirus: Hong Kong approves BioNTech child vaccine for youngsters aged 6 months to 3 years
- Secretary for health approves use of vaccine for younger children as new XBB.1 coronavirus variant detected in city for first time
- Virologist Dr Gilman Siu from PolyU warns that travellers may bring in more new strains in winter under eased curbs.
Hong Kong has approved BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for children aged six months to three years, with officials revealing talks with the drug maker on its supply have made “good progress” although no delivery time has been confirmed.
The development came as the Centre for Health Protection on Wednesday recorded five more cases of new Omicron subvariant XBB.1 – said to have the strongest ability to evade vaccine protection – after the first infection, involving a traveller, was reported on Monday.
Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan urged parents not to wait any longer if they planned on taking children on a Christmas trip, and a virologist warned travellers could bring in more new strains in winter under eased border curbs.
Yeung, who is in charge of the city’s vaccination campaign, said: “If we bring children for travel, we should give them enough protection, as it will be more complicated if they get infected abroad, such as language difficulties and unfamiliarity with the medical systems there.”
She noted that for adequate two-dose protection before the Christmas peak travel season, parents would need to arrange the first jab for their children in mid-November.
The Post first revealed Fosun Pharma, the local agent distributing BioNTech’s vaccine, had submitted an application for emergency use of the child vaccine in late September.
