Advertisement
Hong Kong reopens
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Covid: more mainland Chinese visitors in Hong Kong, but they’re not rushing for bivalent vaccine booster shots

  • Anticipating demand, private clinics charging up to HK$2,800 per shot have advertised on social media since January
  • Many mainlanders who caught Covid-19 in December must wait before they get BioNTech booster shots

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
3
Private clinics and hospitals began offering vaccines in January to non-Hong Kong residents who had to pay for themselves. Photo: Getty Images
Sammy Heung

There has been no sharp increase in mainland Chinese visitors seeking Covid-19 vaccine booster shots in Hong Kong since pandemic travel restrictions were lifted in January.

Advertisement

Anticipating demand for the German-made BioNTech bivalent vaccine that targets the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, private clinics in the city have advertised heavily on social media since January, targeting mainlanders.

Private clinics and hospitals began offering vaccines in January to non-Hong Kong residents who had to pay for themselves, with prices as high as HK$2,800 (US$357) for a single dose. The bivalent vaccine is not yet available on the mainland.
A mainland Chinese visitor receives a bivalent vaccine at a medical clinic in Tsim Sha Tsui in January. Photo: Sam Tsang
A mainland Chinese visitor receives a bivalent vaccine at a medical clinic in Tsim Sha Tsui in January. Photo: Sam Tsang

Dr Samuel Kwok Po-yin, chief medical executive of Virtus Medical, one of the first practices to offer mainlanders the vaccine at HK$1,880 per shot, said: “Demand has not been high since the beginning, perhaps a few shots each day.”

He said it could be because many mainlanders caught Covid-19 at the end of last year, and they had to wait three to six months before receiving the bivalent booster shot.

The Hong Kong government announced earlier that non-residents would not be eligible for free Covid-19 vaccines from January 16, unless they had been inoculated in the city or made a booking under the government’s vaccination programme before that date and were allowed to be in the city for 30 days.

Advertisement

The Omicron-specific booster vaccine can only be administered as the third vaccine dose. Those who have received two rounds of vaccine must wait at least 90 days before getting the booster, and those who fall ill with Covid-19 after receiving two jabs have to wait 180 days.

Advertisement