Experts will meet to discuss booster shots: CE

Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she would soon convene experts advising the government on its Covid-19 strategy to discuss whether to give booster shots to some residents.

This comes after the World Health Organisation recommended that people over 60 who are vaccinated with jabs made by Sinopharm and Sinovac receive a third dose.

“I will soon invite the experts to have a meeting so I can listen to their views about when we should start giving booster shots to people in some special groups,” Lam said.

Meanwhile, the CE admitted that Hong Kong’s vaccine take-up rate was “not good”, with less than 70 percent of the eligible population having received the first dose.

“I want you people to tell me what more we could do other than mandating, but even mandating may not give you the needed result if people said that, ‘I have medical conditions, I have other problems, I just could not take a jab,'” she said.

She appealed to residents who have been vaccinated to encourage their friends and families to do the same.

On border control, Lam said the strict quarantine rules should continue, brushing aside concerns that the restrictions would undermine Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre.