The third batch of 29,250 doses of BioNTech mRNA vaccine has been delivered to Macau from Germany via Hong Kong, the government’s Novel Coronavirus Response and Coordination Centre has announced.
A statement by the centre on Tuesday – when the shipment was delivered to Macau – underlined that Health Bureau (SSM) medical staff will “always carefully check” the vaccine vials for possible defects before administering the BioNTech jabs.
The statement also underlined that the Health Bureau will keep the 90,000 BioNTech doses that have not been administered from the first batch that was affected by packaging defects “sealed up”, until the manufacturer comes up with the final findings of its investigation into the packaging defects.
The first batch of 100,425 doses of BioNTech vaccine was delivered to Macau in late February. However, Macau’s BioNTech vaccinations were suspended on March 24 after the manufacturer had detected packaging defects in some of the vials in the batch. The inoculations were resumed on Monday last week after the second batch of 19,500 doses were delivered to Macau on April 2.
Tuesday’s statement said that the total of 48,750 doses of BioNTech vaccine in the second and third batches have a validity period until August.
The first batch of the German vaccine has a validity period until June.
According to a Health Bureau announcement last month, a total of 6,215 BioNTech doses from the first batch were administered in Macau as of March 23, the day before the suspension of the BioNTech jabs on March 24.
Tuesday’s statement underlined that expired COVID-19 jabs cannot be used and have to be discarded. With the aim of avoiding waste due to vaccine expiration, Macau has asked the BioNTech vaccine supplier to deliver mRNA jabs to Macau in small quantities each time, the statement said.
Tuesday’s statement also said that about 4,000 BioNTech doses from the second and third batches have already been administered, and no abnormalities have been defected so far.
Meanwhile, the centre announced in a statement yesterday that as of 4 p.m. yesterday, 73,100 doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered in Macau, resulting in 295 minor adverse events and one serious adverse event.
Both types of COVID-19 vaccines currently available in Macau, China’s Sinopharm inactivated vaccine and Germany’s BioNTech mRNA vaccine, require two jabs for people to develop immunity.
A traffic police motorcycle is ridden in front of two BioNTech jab chiller lorries arriving at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre on Tuesday. Photo: GCS
