Matthew Cheung Kin-chung at a media briefing on November 24, 2019 Photo: cnsphoto

Chief Secretary for Administration of Hong Kong SAR Cheung Kin-chung said in an official government blog on Sunday that the first batch of vaccines for COVID-19 will arrive in Hong Kong next month.

The SAR government's goal is to provide vaccines to the majority of Hong Kong citizens in 2021, through a government-led vaccination program to vaccinate citizens on a voluntary basis, said Cheung.

Cheung noted that the first batch of vaccines will give priority to high-risk groups such as medical workers, the elderly, chronically ill, and elderly or disabled employees in institutions.

The government has reached a preliminary agreement with Sinovac (Hong Kong) to provide 7.5 million doses of the vaccine to Hong Kong. The first batch of 1 million doses is expected to arrive in Hong Kong in January.

In addition, Cheung said that the SAR government has also reached an agreement with Fosun Pharma to obtain up to 7.5 million doses of mRNA vaccines developed by Fosun and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, which will be produced in Europe.

Cheung said that Hong Kong has launched legislation job to allow the emergency use of any vaccines that have been proven safe and effective in Hong Kong, in order to expedite the registration process of vaccines so that the vaccines can be used quickly.

More restriction policies will be implemented in Hong Kong to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including stricter entry control measures, aggressive testing and punishment of violation of government rules, said Cheung.