HK Needs One Million More Flu Jabs: Kwok Ka-ki

Civic Party lawmaker Kwok Ka-ki has accused the SAR government of failing to secure enough flu jabs, demanding the authorities procure at least one million more shots before the peak flu season kicks in.

He said the Department of Health has so far secured only 878,000 doses of influenza vaccine, while more than 3 million people in Hong Kong are eligible for free shots.

The opposition lawmaker, who's a doctor himself, said on Monday that it's unacceptable that the number of doses procured so far is even lower than the number administered in the government's vaccination programme last season.

He pointed out that the city's private doctors will not be able to order such a large quantity of vaccines to cover the demand.

"It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for the individual doctors to order a large amount of vaccines. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of orders of the vaccine, it can only be done by the government," he said.

Kwok urged the government to maintain a steady supply of flu shots in both the public and private sectors in the SAR, and to order more shots before the peak flu season kicks in early next year.

"We still have enough time, because we are talking about the peak season coming (in) January....I think certainly the government... should at least order nearly 1 million extra stock so that we have a sizeable population to be covered by the vaccination scheme," the opposition legislator said.