The Government announced today that the BioNTech vaccination service will resume on April 5.

The service resumption follows an investigation into packaging defects of the vial caps of the vaccine batch supplied to Hong Kong which showed that the problem was only associated with vaccine packaging under transport conditions, while the production process and vaccine quality were found to be intact.

Meanwhile, around 300,000 doses of the BioNTech vaccine produced in Germany and filled and finished at another plant in the country are expected to arrive in the city on April 2.

Under the resumed vaccination service, people who have a booking to be vaccinated on or after April 5 can receive the jab at the community vaccination centres (CVC) they selected at the time slot they had initially booked and need not make a fresh appointment.

For those who made an appointment for their BioNTech vaccine second dose on or before April 4, the Government will reserve a vaccination slot for them on a day between April 5 and 10.

A new slot will also be reserved for people who booked an appointment for the first dose between March 24 and April 4.

These two categories of people will be notified of the appointment details via SMS from April 2.

The Government added that if the people concerned do not want to take the vaccination slot reserved for them, they should cancel the time slot assigned and change it on the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme website from 9am on April 3.

A new CVC at Ho Man Tin Sports Centre will begin operation on April 5, bringing the number of CVCs administering the BioNTech vaccine to 21.