People queue outside a sports center to receive the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in the Kowloon Bay district of Hong Kong on Feb 26, 2021. (ISAAC LAWRENCE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Online bookings for the Fosun-BioNTech vaccine opened at 9 am on Wednesday and progressed largely smoothly as Hong Kong reported 14 fresh COVID-19 infections, all local. 

People belonging to five priority groups, including the elderly and health care workers, will be inoculated between March 10 and 30. For this phase, 140,000 shots have been allocated.

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Unlike the Sinovac vaccine, residents may only receive the BioNTech jabs at seven community vaccination centers and not at general out-patient clinics given the low-temperature storage requirement

Unlike the Sinovac vaccine, residents may only receive the BioNTech jabs at seven community vaccination centers and not at general out-patient clinics given the low-temperature storage requirement. As per manufacturer specifications, the vaccine has to be stored in a freezer at a temperature of -70°C. 

As part of the COVID-19 vaccination drive officially launched on Feb 26, people in the five priority groups who choose to receive Sinovac shots may book a slot online at eight community vaccination centers and 18 general out-patient clinics until March 28.

Eight of Wednesday's new cases remained untraceable, the Centre for Health Protection said in a statement. Those involved are a 23-year-old marketer, a 53-year-old dishwasher, a 34-year-old care home manager, a 34-year-old salesman, a 53-year-old secretary, a 69-year-old retiree and two housewives aged 47 and 67, respectively.

READ MORE: Nearly 230,000 register for vaccination as HK sees 14 cases

The city’s total of confirmed infections currently stands at 11,046.

Canceled bookings

A community vaccination center at Kwun Chung Sports Centre in Jordan originally had 1,100 bookings on Wednesday, but 200 people canceled their reservations and at least a third did not turn up, according to the center’s medical director Samuel Kwok Po-yin. 

A 63-year-old man died two days after he received a Sinovac shot at the Kwun Chung center on Friday. Health authorities are looking into the casual relationships between the death and the vaccine shot.

Kwok told reporters that there were other 10 people who declined the inoculation on Wednesday morning after being briefed by medical workers there. He said chronically-ill people should take medical advice before seeking inoculation. 

Also on Wednesday, law enforcement officers visited Mei King Mansion Phase I in To Kwa Wan, to verify the test status of around 1,480 residents there. Among them, 185 were found to have ignored the compulsory testing notice. They were issued with new testing orders and some were also fined HK$5,000 (US$645) each.