Elderly residents queue up for walk-in vaccinations

There were queues outside some of Hong Kong’s Covid vaccination centres early on Thursday morning, as elderly people lined up to take advantage of a new walk-in scheme aimed at boosting vaccination rates.

People aged 70 and over are now able to receive their coronavirus jabs without first needing to make a booking. The government said it will hand out 4,500 tickets for the scheme each day.

Officials had said that elderly people will not need to line up early to get the tickets, as they’ll be available every day. They’ve also said family members or carers can be sent in their stead to pick up the tickets.

They are distributed from 7.45am each morning on a first-come, first-served basis.

Nonetheless, elderly people were in line well before the first tickets were handed out.

At a vaccination centre in Lai Chi Kok, one elderly man said he arrived at 6am.

“I don’t know how to use the internet… I live alone and no one can help me,” he said.

“I watched TV and knew that there would be walk-in vaccinations, so I came.”

The government announced on Thursday evening that around 2,000 tickets were given out throughout the day, adding that it may soon consider expanding the scheme to include those aged 60 or above.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Health Protection reported two imported Covid cases on Thursday.

The two men, who flew in from Tanzania and the United States on Sunday, were found to carry the L452R mutant strain of coronavirus during their quarantine at hotels.

The centre was also notified by authorities in the UK that a man who flew from Hong Kong to London earlier this month had tested positive for Covid-19.

The man stayed at the Park Lane Hotel in Causeway Bay before he left Hong Kong.

People who visited the hotel between July 4 and 28 are ordered to get tested for Covid-19.
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Last updated: 2021-07-29 HKT 21:52