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Coronavirus vaccine
OpinionLetters

Letters | Covid vaccines: what will it take for Hong Kong to get mass drive under way?

  • Hong Kong still has significant financial reserves and more should be done to expedite the vaccination programme

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An Israeli teenager receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine at a health centre in Tel Aviv on January 23. Israel began vaccinating on December 19, reaching 10 per cent of its population by the end of 2020. Photo: Xinhua
Letters

I sit here wondering what has been done behind the closed doors of the Legislative Council to secure the required number of vaccine doses to make Hong Kong a safe and vibrant place again.

Every day I read about countries like Israel charging ahead with their vaccination programmes. Apparently they have already given vaccination doses to up to 40 per cent of their entire population. That is almost 4 million people.
It was with some dismay that I watched Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s press conference on Tuesday, January 26, where she stated there had been some issues, or “a little bit of a hiccup”, in securing the vaccines for Hong Kong and we could now expect the vaccination programme to begin towards the end of February.
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What exactly are these issues? The Hong Kong government needs to explain what these are.

09:50

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Is it the case they are not willing to pay the required price to secure a certain dosage of the available vaccines in order to make the city a safer place?

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Is it the case they are willing to sacrifice many businesses, and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in the hospitality sector, for example, in exchange for placing Hong Kong lower down the waiting list for receiving delivery of the necessary doses?

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