Asia Today: Hong Kong secures 15 million vaccine doses
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong has secured delivery of 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, with the first million to arrive as early as January, the city’s leader said Friday.
Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam said the city has reached agreements for 7.5 million doses each from Sinovac and Pfizer/BioNTech. As each person needs two doses, the 15 million would be enough to cover the city’s population, she said.
At-risk people, such as the elderly and staff in nursing homes and in healthcare, will be given priority, she said at a news conference.
“Our target is that within 2021, free vaccines will be provided to Hong Kong residents so that our lives will return to normal as soon as possible, so that we can resume cross-boundary activities and business activities gradually,” Lam said.
She said Hong Kong is also negotiating with AstraZeneca and another manufacturer with the goal of securing a total of 30 million doses. Then, "if one type of vaccine proves to be problematic we have another alternative. And the amount of procurement will be twice the population of Hong Kong,” she said.
The city is currently facing a surge in cases and has tightened social distancing measures. It has reported 7,378 infections, including 114 deaths.
In other developments in the region:
— South Korea is expanding the use of rapid tests and deploying hundreds of police officers and soldiers to help with contact tracing as it deals with its worst surge of coronavirus cases since the early days of the pandemic. Senior Health Ministry official Yoon Taeho said Friday that rapid antigen tests at emergency rooms, intensive-care units and remote-area hospitals will be covered by the national health insurance starting Monday, which would cost recipients about 8,000 won ($7) for each...
