In a statement issued last night, the government said it received a notice from Shanghai-based Fosun Pharma, which said the vaccines will fail to arrive in time today as the export process has yet to be completed in Germany.

Authorities said the delay had nothing to do with European Union restrictions on Covid-19 vaccine exports and stressed the one million doses of the BioNTech vaccine will be delivered in two batches "as soon as possible."

Fosun Pharma had also confirmed that the first million doses of the BioNTech vaccine have completed production and successfully passed the relevant safety and quality testing. The jabs will be delivered to Hong Kong from Germany via two flights.