The value of Hong Kong’s total exports decreased to $284.1 billion in February, down 0.8% on the same month last year, the Census & Statistics Department announced today. The value of imports of goods fell 1.8% to $325.7 billion for the same period. A trade deficit of $41.7 billion, or 12.8% of the value of imports, was recorded in February. Comparing the three-month period ending February with the preceding three months on a seasonally adjusted basis, the value of exports rose 5.5%, while that of imports also increased 3.3%. The Government noted that taking the first two months of the year together to remove the volatility caused by the difference in timing of the Lunar New Year, the value of exports posted a 16.6% growth against a very low base of comparison a year ago. Exports to the Mainland and the US rose notably, while those to the European Union fell. Those to other major Asian markets recorded a mixed performance. Looking ahead, the Gove
Secretary for Food & Health Prof Sophia Chan today said the reagent used by the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch for COVID-19 testing is not affected by the genetic transformation of the virus’ S protein.
She told legislators the laboratory services branch under the Centre for Health Protection is currently using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) nucleic acid test to conduct and process COVID-19 testing.
On vaccine procurement, Prof Chan said the vaccines advance purchased by the Government are the inactivated virus vaccine by Sinovac Biotech (Hong Kong), the nucleic acid vaccine by Fosun Pharma/German drug developer BioNTech, and the viral vector vaccine by AstraZeneca/University of Oxford.
The health chief noted the Government’s goal is to procure at least one vaccine from each vaccine technology platform. This means it will purchase four different vaccines, with the aggregate number of doses sufficient to serve at least two times the city’s population.
This is to diversify risks and ensure sufficient supplies of safe and efficacious vaccines for the whole of Hong Kong, Prof Chan added.
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