MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2021) Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday announced requesting the assistance of mainland China's authorities in procuring state-developed vaccines against the coronavirus disease as the city struggles with acquiring them on its own.
Earlier in the day, Lam addressed the issue ahead of her weekly Executive Council meeting, mentioning difficulties in getting doses of the Pfizer/BioNtech, Sinovac or AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccines, despite having advance purchase agreements. According to the official, the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine will arrive only in late February, and Sinovac's CoronaVac jabs, scheduled for delivery at the end of January, are delayed as well. As for the AstraZeneca one, it is said to arrive only in the second half of the year.
"With those considerations in mind, I triggered [an understanding agreed to] when I visited Beijing last November, that if there was a need in Hong Kong, the chief executive could always approach the central people's government for help in trying to secure a mainland-developed vaccine for Hong Kong," the chief executive said as quoted by the South China Morning Post newspaper.
The vaccine requested by the Hong Kong leader is developed by the state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).
Lam also praised the recent two-day lockdown of the city's densely populated Yau Tsim Mong district, imposed to stem the spike of COVID-19 cases, hailing it as a success.
