'High Jab Rate Needed Before Social Distancing Shift'

Government expert adviser Yuen Kwok-yung said on Friday that Hong Kong should only ease social distancing measures when the Covid vaccination rate is "very high".

This came after Chief Executive Carrie Lam hinted at changes to pandemic rules, saying residents and businesses are losing patience with the current situation.

Lam said details about territory-wide testing, school resumption, social distancing measures and more will be announced on Sunday or Monday.

Speaking on an RTHK show on Friday, Yuen said the current wave of infections may have peaked, but Hong Kong could still have to wait a month or so before cases drop to several hundred per day.

He said people have to stay vigilant and get vaccinated to prevent a rebound in infections.

“We have to wait till the vaccination rate is very high before we ease social distancing measures, so it will be safe,” he said.

Yuen said elderly people and chronic disease patient infected with Covid are less likely to need to go into hospital if they’ve been vaccinated, and when more of them have had jabs the impact of outbreaks on the public health system will be reduced.

In a newspaper article published on Thursday, Yuen and two other experts said the city's inoculation rate should exceed 95 percent.

On Friday, Yuen also suggested that the best time to relax Covid measures will be during hot weather.

“A virus will die if it stays at a high temperature for a long time, and it will no longer infect or harm people. So if we relax social distancing measures, the best time to do it is when it's hot,” he said.

“We're actually very close now, as our daily temperatures have already risen to 28 degrees. If many of us are vaccinated, and as infections drop, we can ease social distancing measures very soon.”