Long-stay hospital patients to get Covid jabs

The Hospital Authority said on Monday that it has started vaccinating its long-stay psychiatric patients against Covid-19.

The authority’s chief executive Tony Ko said he believed a majority of them were suitable to receive the shots.

Speaking on an RTHK programme, he said other long-term in-patients, such as those undergoing rehabilitation, would also be inoculated later.

“In the past, every year we also arranged influenza vaccinations for patients like psychiatric in-patients,” he said.

“So far we’ve discussed with some of the patients and their relatives. They welcome this arrangement. We expect the response to be similar to what we had during the previous seasons when we did the influenza vaccinations,” he added.

Ko also noted there hsa been an uptick in the vaccination rate among public hospital workers, with more than 36,000 of them, or 40 percent of the authority’s workforce, having taken the jabs.

He said among doctors, the inoculation rate has risen to around 70 percent.

Meanwhile, Ko said public hospitals would further relax restrictions for visitors as Hong Kong’s coronavirus situation eases.

He said visits will be allowed at more hospitals and families and friends of hospital patients will also be allowed to visit twice a week instead of only once.