New arrangements unveiled for home vaccination

The Secretary for the Civil Service, Patrick Nip, on Sunday said the government will bring in new arrangements to vaccinate elderly and disabled people at home.

Nip, who leads Hong Kong’s vaccination programme, said the government will start registering unvaccinated people aged 70 or over and disabled people for in-home vaccination during overnight lockdowns this week.

The official said those who signed up for the service will be given a jab at their homes the day after the lockdown operations are completed.

“In previous lockdown operations, special arrangements were made for those who couldn’t leave their homes so they could get tested at home. So it’s very likely that these people may not have been able to get jabbed because of these difficulties in moving or for other reasons. We hope to seize the opportunity to immediately vaccinate them the day after they test negative during the lockdown, so they won’t have to find other ways to get vaccinated,” he said.

He also announced the government would launch a new online platform this week for the needy to register their names and home addresses, so community groups and medical teams can contact them to arrange to inoculate them at home.

The official said the online platform will be used via community groups at first and will be put to wider public use later on.

Nip also said the government aims to get 90 percent of those aged 12 or above vaccinated with at least two Covid jabs by the end of April.

At the moment, 92 percent of the age group have received one dose, while 84 percent, or 5.64 million people, have been double-jabbed. The number of Hong Kong people who’ve had three inoculations is 2.67 million.