People walk along a fresh produce street market in the Jordan area of the Yau Tsim Mong district of Kowloon in Hong Kong on January 22, 2021, an area of dense housing which has seen a recent spike in COVID-19 cases. (ANTHONY WALLACE / AFP)

HONG KONG - Hong Kong approved BioNtech vaccines distributed by Fosun Pharma for emergency use on Monday as the city reported 73 new COVID-19 cases, including 69 local infections, bringing the city’s tally to 10,158.

Hong Kong’s Secretary for Food and Health Sophia Chan Siu-chee authorized the vaccines for use days after an advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccines announced that it would recommend the vaccine to the Food and Health Bureau.

In a press statement, the health chief said the decision to include the vaccine in the city’s upcoming inoculation program had been taken following the expert panel’s recommendation and that it would serve public interest.

The first batch of 1 million doses have been produced and are undergoing quality and safety tests, the government said in the statement, citing information provided by the drug manufacturer. The jabs are expected to be shipped to Hong Kong from Germany in the second half of February.

Also on Monday, 13 new patients were identified by a two-day mandatory testing program that ended midnight in Jordan, Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease bureau, said in a press briefing.

The new local infections included that of 14 residents of Yau Tsim Mong district while eight others were from Sham Shui Po district

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The new local infections included that of 14 residents of Yau Tsim Mong district while eight others were from Sham Shui Po district, Chuang said.

Many residential buildings in both districts had come under tougher mandatory COVID-19 testing rules to prevent the spread of the virus.

Chuang said a resident of Kin Ling Elderly Home on Ferry Street in Yau Ma Tei tested positive. At least 20 other residents and five workers there would be quarantined.

Chuang also said that there were 38 untraceable local cases, the highest number since Jan 18, while the four imported cases were from Belarus, Pakistan, Dubai and the Philippines.

“The proportion of unlinked cases every day, especially today, is worrying. There are quite significant silent transmissions in the community. Not all the cases are being picked up by our surveillance system,” Chuang said.

More than 60 people tested preliminarily positive for the virus, she added.

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Hospital Authority Chief Manager Lau Ka-hin said at the same briefing that three nurses at Queen Elizabeth Hospital tested preliminarily positive, leading to nine of their colleagues being quarantined.

Two of the three nurses had worked at isolation wards for COVID-19 patients, while the third had no contact with positive cases but lived at a building where patients were found, Lau said.

Lau advised the public to avoid going to the hospital’s emergency unit, adding that two general medical wards there were no longer admitting new patients.

Meanwhile, a 94-year-old woman with chronic diseases died from the coronavirus on Monday morning after she was hospitalized on Jan 18, the Hospital Authority said in a statement. She was the city’s 170th coronavirus-related fatality.

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