April 27, 2022
HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s Civil Service Bureau on Tuesday launched a territory-wide home vaccination service after consolidating information of eligible persons and matching them to medical teams.
The launch came a week into the start of registration for the door-to-door service. As of Monday night, about 7,900 people registered for it, according to Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen.
Three elderly persons aged between 75 and 94 years, who had not received any COVID-19 vaccine earlier, were the first beneficiaries to have received vaccination under the program. Two of them were infected with COVID-19 in early March, and they received vaccination one month after their recovery.
Elderly persons who are not vaccinated should take this opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible and receive the second, third and even the fourth dose on time.
Patrick Nip, Secretary for the Civil Service, HKSAR
The secretary for the civil service and Legislative Council member for the medical and health services functional constituency Dr David Lam visited Siu Sai Wan Estate on Tuesday to inspect the vaccination process for elderly persons, according to a government press release.
Medical Conscience, which Dr Lam belongs to, is also among the outreach medical teams in the Home Vaccination Service.
The vaccination process, from a simple briefing on vaccination to the printing of a vaccination record, went very smoothly. Volunteers remain on-site to assist, if needed.
The service is being rolled out by district, with four or five districts being served each week.
“We are very grateful for the support from the public, but we believe that there are still some people with special needs adopting a wait-and-see attitude, who we hope will grasp the opportunity and register as early as possible,” said Nip.
The authorities will launch the door-to-door vaccination service in Sai Kung District on Thursday and will progressively increase the daily number of outreach teams to speed up the progress of vaccination, he added.
According to the provisional data of the reported death cases in the fifth wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, the number of reported deaths of unvaccinated persons aged 70 or above has reached 5,848, accounting for about 65 percent of the total number of deaths, he said. “It is the people of this age group that the home vaccination service hopes to protect and assist in getting vaccinated.”
Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip (fifth left), and Director of General Grades of the Civil Service Bureau Hermes Chan (second left) pose for a photo with the Legislative Council member for medical and health services, Dr David Lam (fifth right), and a medical team on the first day of a territory-wide home vaccination service on April 26, 2022. (PHOTO / INFORMATION SERVICES DEPARTMENT, HKSAR)
Cautioning against letting the guard down although the pandemic situation has been subsiding, he said, “On the contrary, elderly persons who are not vaccinated should take this opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible and receive the second, third and even the fourth dose on time.”
Unvaccinated elderly persons aged 70 or above and persons with impaired mobility due to illness or physical disability can avail the opportunity to register for the free door-to-door Sinovac vaccination service via the Home Vaccination Service website (www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/hv/) or the enquiry hotline on 5688 5234 (operating from 9 am to 8 pm daily).