Expert Backs Idea Of Tighter Jab Rules For Schools

Infectious disease expert Joseph Tsang said on Tuesday that he agrees with suggestions to tighten the Covid vaccination requirement for full-day classes in secondary schools, from two jabs to three.

On an RTHK programme, Tsang said Hong Kong should try its best to allow children to have a relatively normal school life despite the pandemic.

“I hope this kind of administrative orders or policies can achieve a win-win situation,” said Tsang, a co-chairman of the Hong Kong Medical Association's advisory committee on communicable diseases.

“Students can have face-to-face classes. As for the government, [such rules] could hopefully prevent children and young people from developing serious illnesses from Covid and have to be treated in hospital,” he added.

Tsang said antibody levels may already have dropped in people who were vaccinated earlier in the pandemic or among those who recovered from Covid, but people who are fully inoculated are less likely to develop severe illness if they catch the virus.

Another infectious disease expert, Wilson Lam, said there is a need to slow down the current surge in infections, to make sure the public healthcare system does not become overstretched.

As schools resume after the summer break, Lam said students should continue to take rapid antigen tests (RATs) every day.

“It’s very important for them to perform regular RATs again, because once introduced in the school place, it would be quite difficult to limit [the virus’] spread given the difficulty for kids, especially small kids, to observe all the infection control practices,” he said.