Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip, who’s responsible for the vaccination drive, said more than 3.4 million people had now had their first dose.
On his Facebook page, he said that a 70 percent vaccination rate was now the basic goal. But he also said he hoped 90, or even 100 percent, would get inoculated, so social-distancing restrictions could be relaxed.
Daily vaccination rates have been picking up. Over 67,000 people got a jab on Thursday, that’s 1,100 more than the seven-day moving average.
According to government figures, roughly 40 percent have opted for the traditional inactivated-virus Sinovac jab, and 60 percent for the BioNTech shot, which uses new mRNA technology.
An mRNA Covid vaccine produces a harmless spike protein, found on the surface of the virus, to create an immune response.
With regard to the highly-infectious delta variant of Covid, a recent Public Health England analysis, which is yet to be peer reviewed, shows BioNTech to be 88 percent effective against developing symptoms and 96 percent effective against hospitalisation