Hong Kong: the Shanghai of China Fosun Pharmaceutical Group said the users of their mobile health app in China can now register to take COVID-19 reinforcement shots in Hong Kong using BioNTechthe vaccine
The booster shots on offer are recommended for those aged 18 and over and for those who have completed their initial course of vaccination, according to the Shanghai-listed company.
The announcement came as mainland China took a major step to ease COVID-19 border controls, and the Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus was seen by Chinese politicians as having weakened in pathogenicity.
Until now, China has insisted on using only Chinese-made vaccines, which are of the inactivated virus type and not based on Western mRNA technology, for its own population.
BioNTech and its China partner Fosun have received approval for their COVID-19 vaccine that is adapted for Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants for people aged 12 and over in Hong Kong, the German company said on Dec. 23.
The vaccine is the first and currently the only variant-adapted vaccine available as a booster dose for people aged 12 and older to receive approval in Hong Kong, BioNTech said at the time.
Fosun did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A shipment of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines destined for German citizens in China arrived at the German embassy in Beijing last week as cases in China soared after lawmakers abandoned nearly all previous epidemic control protocols.
