HONG KONG: A Hong Kong government advisory panel on COVID-19 vaccines said on Tuesday it would recommend China's Sinovac vaccine for emergency use, a move that brings it a step closer to being formally greenlighted in the Asian financial hub.

Hong Kong's government said in early February that it was exempting Chinese drug maker Sinovac from publishing results of its third phase clinical trials in medical journals due to the "urgency" for vaccination.

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine - the first approved by Hong Kong's Health department - was required to have published results in a medical journal before being examined by the advisory panel.

The city's Health Secretary Sophia Chan has the final decision on whether to approve the Sinovac vaccine.