The Latest Breaking News from BioNTech

Hong Kong residents have swamped clinics to get vaccinated against COVID-19 ahead of the expected reopening of the city's border with mainland China, which some people fear will bring a surge of infections to the financial hub.

Health care centers from Guangzhou to Shijiazhuang and Beijing are slammed amid surging infections and severe shortages of medical workers

Officials and global health experts outside China are anxiously watching a COVID-19 surge there, worried a nation of 1.4 billion people is inadequately vaccinated and may not have the healthcare tools to treat a wave of illness expected to kill more than one million people through 2023.

Beijing's uneasy relationship with mRNA vaccines is all the more relevant as it begins to relax COVID restrictions.

The Chinese foreign ministry said China and Germany had reached an agreement on providing "German vaccines" to German nationals in China, after the German Chancellor recently said that BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine would be used by German expatriates.

Biotech giant Moderna's first mRNA vaccine facility in Australia is due to open in 2024, and will produce 100 million vaccine doses per year.

The move opens the door to vaccinating the country’s youngest children should the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation agree

But a bigger problem for Beijing may be the number of elderly Chinese who have yet to get their booster shots.

Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE said on Friday their Omicron-tailored shot produced higher virus-neutralizing antibodies in older adults against the emerging subvariant BQ.1.1 than its original vaccine.