All Hongkongers should expect to get a booster jab, respiratory disease expert David Hui Shu-cheong said, as a joint research by two Hong Kong universities showed that the Covid-19 variant Omicron significantly reduces the effect of BioNTech vaccines. But the Omicron variant might make it necessary for all residents to get an extra dose, Hui said on a radio program on Sunday. Professor Malik Peiris, Professor of Virology at HKU, and his team isolated the Omicron variant earlier. They carried out tests to measure antibodies generated by BioNTech against the Omicron variant and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. A similar test of another vaccine used in Hong Kong, Sinovac, is being conducted and the results will soon be available.

Source: The Standard December 12, 2021 06:52 UTC