Five residents separately told The Macau Post Daily yesterday in Taipa near Nam San Garden that they are not going to have their COVID-19 jabs soon, adding that they have a wait-and-see attitude towards the vaccine.
The first batch of inactivated vaccines developed by Beijing-based China National Pharmaceutical Group (also known as Sinopharm) – 100,000 doses – was delivered to Macau on February 6. The Macau government has ordered a total of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines.
Around 2,600 local residents made an appointment to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus on Monday – the first day of the start of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive for all local residents. Participation in the inoculation campaign is voluntary.
A 25-year-old woman, surnamed Chan, told The Macau Post Daily that she was not thinking of having the jab at the moment.
“Like for the new iPhone, you don’t buy it as soon as it is released but you wait and see what others say about them before purchasing one,” Chan said.
Chan admitted that she did not pay close attention to the news about the COVID-19 jabs, adding that she thought Macau was only buying Sinopharm’s vaccine.
Another female respondent, aged 30 and surnamed Segerino, said that she would only have the jab “if my employer asked for it”. Segerino said she did not need the jab.
A 40-year-old male resident, surnamed Chan, said that he would wait for half a year before deciding whether to have the jab or not. Chan said he needed to see how others react to the vaccination before getting inoculated.
When asked which vaccine he would prefer, Chan said he would choose Sinopharm’s vaccine.
Another 75-year-old male respondent, surnamed Mak, said that he would not have the vaccine because he was worried about the side effects. Mak said that he was already 70-something years old and he did not want to take any risk. He also pointed out that Macau is a safe city, so he was not too worried about the COVID-19 pandemic.
When asked if he preferred any of the three vaccines that Macau will have, Mak said he only believed in Sinopharm’s vaccine because he thinks Chinese medical technology is more reliable.
A 70-year-old woman said that she could not be vaccinated because she has hypertension. She said that however she was not too worried because Macau is a “very safe” city. She added that if she lived elsewhere, she would be worried about the novel coronavirus pandemic and probably would consider having the vaccination. The respondent, who refused to disclose her name, said that even her sons and daughters were not having the jab because “Macau is a safe city”.
A Health Bureau (SSM) official, Tai Wa Hou, told reporters on Monday that mRNA vaccines developed by Germany’s BioNTech will be delivered to Macau late this month or early next month. He added that the local government expected the vaccine developed by the Anglo-Swedish joint venture of AstraZeneca and Oxford University to be delivered to Macau in the third quarter at the earliest.
Vaccines are free for all residents and they can choose whichever vaccine they prefer. The government’s 12 COVID-19 vaccination facilities run from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, where 5,000 places for COVID-19 vaccination are available per day.
A local resident gets his first jab at the Areia Preta Health Centre on Monday, the first day of the start of the government’s COVID-19 vaccination drive for all local residents. Photo: Prisca Tang
