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Coronavirus – Hong Kong: Sinovac vaccine approved for children aged 3-17

Hong Kong approves lowering of age limit from 18 to 3 years for Chinese vaccine Sinovac Biotech against COVID-19, as it continues a broader campaign to motivate its 7.5 million inhabitants to be vaccinated against coronavirus disease.

“Adolescents aged 12 to 17 years will have priority in the administration of the CoronaVac vaccine, with a view to extending it to younger children at a later stage”, clarified the Minister of Food and Health of Hong Kong Sophia Chan in her announcement that was published today.

According to her, the ministry considers that the benefits of approving the enlargement of the age group that the vaccine can make, in order to cover the ages of 3 to 17, “offset the risks”.

His Government Advisory Committee Hong Kong for COVID-19 vaccines had previously recommended to the Ministry of Health to approve the new age limit, the statement added.

The extension of the age limit to children from the age of three comes at a time when the immunization campaign in Hong Kong, which began in February, lags behind other economically developed regions, as well as about 67% of its population has been fully vaccinated with both doses of either the Sinovac vaccine or the German BioNTech vaccine.

In a separate statement Friday, the Hong Kong government said it had purchased an additional 1 million doses of BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for the third dose of the disease vaccine.

Hong Kong has followed Beijing’s example in maintaining strict travel restrictions to prevent new outbreaks of the new coronavirus, as opposed to a global trend to open up and live with the virus.

International business pressure groups have warned Hong Kong that it could lose its charisma and investment, as well as its competitive position against other rival economic hubs such as Singapore, if it does not ease its travel restrictions.

Despite the few recent local cases and an environment virtually free of COVID-19, Hong Kong imposes a mandatory hotel quarantine of up to 21 days on arrivals from most countries at the expense of travelers.

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