Elderly flock to get their first jab

All same-day tickets were snapped up in half an hour on Friday at a Covid-19 mobile vaccination station at Wong Tai Sin Temple Square offering the BioNTech vaccine to members of the public over the next three days.

More than 100 people had queued up before the station opened at 10am, some of them trying to get their first jab.

Among them were elderly people who said they would need to be inoculated, with the government requiring people to get at least one jab to be able to go to restaurants from February 24.

“Now the government wants everyone to get vaccinated. If I don’t get vaccinated, I can’t go to anywhere. I’m forced to get jabbed,” said a 90-year-old woman surnamed Chan, who was in the queue but failed to obtain a same-day ticket.

And there were those who’d made an advance booking over the phone.

One of them was a man surnamed Lam, who complained about the arrangement.

“Wong Tai Sin is huge with many elderly [living here]… one station is not enough,” he said.

Another man, 72, who also got the jab said everything went smoothly.

“It’s quite convenient and the directions here are clear,” he said.

The station is operating in a container retrofitted for vaccination purposes, and will be transported by truck to serve Sham Shui Po, Sheung Shui, Sai Kung and Tsz Wan Shan later in the month.

Ares Leung from Town Health International Medical Group Limited, who’s in charge of the station, said he expects hundreds of shots to be administered each day.

Separately, the Department of Health said there will be extended hours for walk-in services at three of the 18 elderly health centres around Hong Kong – in Lam Tin, Sai Ying Pun and Tsung Kwan O – from Monday, offering Sinovac jabs.