'Get Fourth Covid Jab To Avoid Winter Outbreak'

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists on Sunday called on people who are eligible for a fourth Covid jab to get one before winter to prevent another outbreak.

Those who are aged 50 or above or have an impaired immune system can get their fourth shot three months after the third, while people aged between 18 and 49 can receive the booster dose after a six-month window.

The society's president, William Chui, said while a survey it conducted with 506 people in the past two months showed that around 74 percent had been triple-jabbed against Covid, only about 6 percent had got their fourth dose of the vaccine.

"Results of the survey indicated that they didn't want to receive the fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine mainly because they thought the third dose was enough to protect them. They thought that the antibody level was enough for the coming winter but in fact there may be [a resurgence] of Covid-19 then," he said.

Chui urged people not to wait for the next generation of Covid vaccines, especially when other places are seeing new Omicron subvariants like BA.2.75 and BA.2.75.2.

"The subvariant BA.2.75.2 is a main concern, because it developed resistance to the drug therapy which is available in Hong Kong, including the Remdesivir injection and also oral antiviral drugs for the treatment of mild to moderate Covid-19."

Chui added that another survey they did in September and earlier this month showed 47 percent of 147 parents polled had not or would not get their children inoculated against Covid.

He said the parents were worried about the side effects of the vaccine or that it would cause allergies.

The pharmacist said the results were concerning, and called on the authorities to introduce the BioNTech jab for those aged below five in order to boost the vaccination rate.

Currently, children younger than five can only receive the Sinovac vaccine in Hong Kong.