Beef Up Vaccination Capacity Further, Expert Urges

An expert advising the government on its Covid vaccination programme has urged authorities to drastically increase the capacity of vaccination centres and recruit as many medical personnel as it can to support them.

Professor Lau Yu-lung told an RTHK programme on Friday that the centres should extend their services by at least six hours every day, adding people who want to get jabbed should not have to wait for more than two to three days.

“Don’t maintain 8 am to 8 pm. Increase service hours by at least six hours. Start from 6 am to 7am and open until midnight. Shorten the observation time after a person gets jabbed - you don’t have to sit there for 15 to 30 minutes,” he said.

Such changes will double the capacity of vaccination centres in a few days, the expert said.

He also said outreach services should be provide for people living in buildings that are locked down for mass testing.

“The government must now utilise all the capacity from the private sector, and recruit medical or nursing students from universities or students who receive relevant trainings. They must be enlisted, as if we are at war, to help vaccinate people and boost take-up rate,” he said.

But Samuel Kwok, who runs the Kwun Chung community vaccination centre, says manpower is stretched, and only licensed medical personnel should be giving jabs, so they may have to ask retirees or people who’ve changed professions to come back to help.

“We had considered opening till 11pm, but it’s definitely not easy. Because we wouldn’t know how to split the night shift. Do you split it into two shifts or ask them to lengthen the shift? If they continue to work until 10pm, they won’t be home by 11pm or midnight and they will have no time for dinner. We have to figure it out,” he said.

He added, though, perhaps such arrangements could be adopted for a month or two to beef up vaccination rate to satisfy the pressing need.