Threshold Lowered For Covid Jab Outreach Services

The government says it will be arranging more Covid vaccine outreach services for kindergartens and child daycare centres to boost the vaccination rate among toddlers.

Outreach vaccination teams previously visited these venues when at least 30 people needed a jab – but that number has now been lowered to ten.

Civil service minister Ingrid Yeung said the change was made to cater for smaller kindergartens and daycare centres, adding that she hopes more toddlers will get jabbed when schools resume next month.

She said currently, some 2.6 percent of children aged between six months and three years have had the Sinovac shot since it was made available to them on August 4.

"Right now we have more than 3,000 infants who've been vaccinated. I hope the pace will quicken – I'm confident that as schools open, as many more schools organise outreach services for their students, and as parents became more aware of the benefits of vaccination, the percentage will go up," she told reporters during a visit to the Hong Kong Children's Hospital.

The hospital's chief executive, Dr Lee Tsz-leung, stressed that vaccination offers the best protection against Covid, noting that children may develop complications such as acute meningitis or croup after they're infected.

A mother, surnamed Wong, took her two-year-old daughter to the hospital for a jab.

"Before the age limit was three, so now with that lowered I brought my daughter to get jabbed, so we can feel more at ease," she said.