Govt Racing To Vaccinate Elderly People, Children: CE

Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Friday said more has to be done to boost Hong Kong's vaccination rate, with the focus on inoculating the elderly and children.

Speaking at her daily pandemic press briefing, Lam said a low vaccination rate among elderly people has led to many deaths in the fifth Covid wave.

She also said if all children get vaccinated, they could go back to school after Easter.

Lam said some 300,000 people above the age of 70 are unvaccinated, as well as 260,000 children who are eligible for shots.

She again urged people to get jabbed.

Asked whether a higher vaccination rate would lead to social-distancing rules being relaxed, the CE said measures would still be necessary to curb the spread of the virus.

“It’s not as simple as that. It’s not that if we have reached a certain level of vaccination, we can do away with all the social-distancing measures. The most important effect of vaccination is to reduce the severe and death cases,” she said.

Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip, who oversees Hong Kong’s inoculation programme, said around 89 percent of people aged 60 to 69 have received at least one shot, compared with only 79 percent of people in the 70 to 79 age group.

As for the over 80s, just 54 percent have had at least one dose.

With the government aiming to vaccinate all elderly residents at care homes by March 18, Nip said about 40,000 people in 970 facilities have already been vaccinated, and outreach teams will go to the remaining 130 care homes soon.

He added that there will be at-home inoculation services for elderly people who live on their own, at a later time.

Labour chief Law Chi-kwong said the authorities are still finding it difficult to push for vaccination in elderly care homes, with one reason being objections from relatives.

“There are 10 percent of family members who oppose vaccinating the elderly residents,” he said.

“In fact, if elderly residents get vaccinated in a home environment, they are protecting others too, not just themselves. Imagine if someone is not vaccinated, and he or she is infected, then there’s a higher chance of that person infecting others.”