COVID-19 vaccine info to be updated

March 11, 2021

Under Secretary for Food & Health Dr Chui Tak-yi:

About the (COVID-19) Vaccination Programme, the preparation of the programme itself is a very thorough process and part of the preparation includes gathering information that is very vital for potential recipients to note before they decide whether they will receive the vaccination. 

So (we have) gathered from information from drug companies, information that is available in published studies or in phase three trials or in other governments that have launched these vaccination programmes with particular vaccines. 

This information is quite abundant already. So when an individual decides to consider to book one of the vaccination sessions, he or she has to visit the website or get one of these hard copies of (the vaccination fact sheets) and go through every detail before he or she gives consent for the vaccination.

Now it’s (been) two weeks after the launch of the vaccination programme and we have gathered feedback from those who run the vaccination centres and recipients of vaccinations that they might need to have more information and that information may be more clinically related.

So I understand that colleagues in the Department of Health have been communicating with clinical experts (recently). When the information is ready, they’re going to distribute more clinically relevant information for partners who provide vaccination and also for the public to consider.

(To watch the full press briefing with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Government will provide more clinically relevant information on COVID-19 vaccines so that the public will have a better idea about whether they are suitable to receive the vaccine or not.

At a press briefing this afternoon, Under Secretary for Food & Health Dr Chui Tak-yi said the move was made following feedback from the operators of the community vaccination centres and people who were inoculated in the first two weeks of the vaccination programme's launch.

Dr Chui said it is necessary for people to go through the information on COVID-19 vaccines, available on a dedicated webpage and in the form of a fact sheet, before they make bookings for the vaccine.

“About the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, the preparation of the programme itself is a very thorough process and part of the preparation includes gathering information that is very vital for potential recipients to note before they decide whether they will receive the vaccination.

“So we have gathered from information from drug companies, information that is available in published studies or in phase three trials or in other governments that have launched these vaccination programmes with particular vaccines.

“This information is quite abundant already. So when an individual decides to consider to book one of the vaccination sessions, he or she has to visit the website or get one of these hard copies of the vaccination fact sheets and go through every detail before he or she gives consent for the vaccination.”

He added that the Government is working with clinical experts to provide further information to the programme partners as well as members of the public.

“Now it has been two weeks after the launch of the vaccination programme and we have gathered feedback from those who run the vaccination centres and recipients of vaccinations that they might need to have more information and that information may be more clinically related.

“So I understand that colleagues in the Department of Health have been communicating with clinical experts recently. When the information is ready, they are going to distribute more clinically relevant information for partners who provide vaccination and also for the public to consider.”