Hong Kong Sees A Surge In Covid Vaccinations

More and more people in Hong Kong are getting vaccinated, with the daily jab figure hitting just over 70,000. That's nearly 14 percent higher than the seven-day moving average of nearly 61,500, pointing to a surge in interest.

Government officials and medical experts say they're encouraged.

Speaking on a radio programme, Professor Lau Yu-lung, an expert advising the government on the vaccination programme, said Hong Kong could be protected from any coronavirus variant if the vaccination rate reached 80 or 90 per cent.

He urged people with chronic conditions to get vaccinated, saying they were at high risk of developing complications if they caught Covid-19.

He said a vaccination centre run by the University of Hong Kong would start giving jabs to children who have had cancer and kidney transplants.

Writing on his Facebook page, the Secretary for Civil Service, Patrick Nip, who's in charge of the vaccination programme, said he was happy to see the new vaccination numbers.

He said if the momentum continued, Hong Kong could achieve a vaccination rate of 70 per cent - a herd immunity threshold suggested by some scientists.

More than 2.5 million people in Hong Kong - around 37 per cent of the total population - have now received at least one dose of a vaccine, and about 25 percent two.