Children As Young As Five May Need Vaccine Pass

Children as young as five may soon need to use the government's vaccine pass to go into restaurants and various other premises, as the government looks for new ways to try to boost the Covid vaccination rate.

Civil Service Secretary Ingrid Yeung, who's in charge of the government's vaccination drive, confirmed the move is being considered, without providing details.

"As to whether to lower the age [requirement] for the vaccine pass, we consider all methods to boost the vaccination rate. The related departments are considering all methods and this is one of them being considered," she said.

Currently, only people aged 12 and above are required to have proof of vaccination or an exemption under the pass scheme, which covers among other places, restaurants, malls, supermarkets, markets, swimming pools, sports premises, places of worship and hairdressers.

Vaccine records can be stored in government smartphone apps, including LeaveHomeSafe, or a paper record can be presented for venues to scan if required.

Meanwhile, the civil service chief announced that 15 private clinics are now offering both Sinovac and BioNTech vaccines following a successful pilot scheme.

“We’ve been using a few private clinics to test out the injection of the BioNTech [vaccine] as it requires a dilution process. After having tested this for a long period, we find that the operators of these clinics are accustomed to this process and are able to handle this process fairly safely,” Yeung said.

She added that more venues could provide Covid jabs for the public, so sports centres which are being used as community vaccination centres at the moment could be freed up.