HKSAR gov't appeals to support from residential care homes, healthcare in expediting vaccination

HONG KONG, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government on Friday appealed to support from residential care homes (RCHs) and healthcare organizations for new measures to boost the COVID-19 vaccination rate and better protect the elderly and persons with disabilities.

Chris Sun, secretary for labor and welfare of the HKSAR government, said that with the recent rise of COVID-19 cases in RCHs alongside the persistently high level of community infections and considering the vaccination rate for the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccines in RCHs is only standing at 39 percent, it is necessary to speed up their vaccination progress.

Health secretary of the HKSAR government Lo Chung-mau said the elderly is one of the high-risk groups that are most severely impacted under the COVID-19 epidemic, and a special program will be launched with a target of not missing any RCH resident who is ready to be vaccinated and getting them vaccinated as soon as possible.

The HKSAR government's objective is to increase the vaccination rate of the second dose in RCHs to over 90 percent within August, and to provide the third dose to all suitable RCH residents by the end of September, with a view to increasing the vaccination rate of the third dose to at least 50 percent, according to both secretaries.

From July 25, the government will invite medical teams to visit their matched RCHs at least once a week for outreach vaccination service for six weeks.

On Friday, Hong Kong registered 4,090 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 180 imported cases, official data showed.