For the past three years, my 83-year-old father has been a resident of a senior citizens’ home in Kowloon Tong, one of hundreds of such senior care facilities in Hong Kong. When he first moved there, he was content with the accommodation and the quality of care. Since he was able-bodied, he enjoyed daily outings to the nearby Festival Walk mall and other places. We would meet for weekly family meals and cinema nights regularly. Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Social Welfare Department, which regulates senior homes, has enforced a strict “ no-visitor no-exit policy”. Fast forward to May 2020, and my dad is losing his will to live; his physical and mental health has deteriorated dramatically since he was trapped in the home for more than a year. We try to visit anyway and communicate through the gates, but it is not the same as speaking face to face. To make matters worse, the Hong Kong government has not given any priority to senior citizens living in care homes in terms of getting vaccinated. The management of my dad’s care home has tried hard, but continues to be told by the Social Welfare Department that it is very complex, that there are too many homes and that the residents and their families just have to wait until the government organises a programme. Meanwhile, all the members of our family older than 16 have been fully vaccinated, including our helper. The government did announce a relaxation of the “no visitor” policy recently, but it is still extremely restricted. A visitor can go for only one hour, from 3pm to 4pm (in the garden only), one only person can visit, and that person must have received two doses of vaccine, then waited two weeks and got a negative Covid-19 test result that is no more than a week old for each visit. In practice, this means seniors that will not receive as many visitors as they need. In many developed countries, including the UK and the United States, residents of senior care homes have been the first to receive vaccines , as they are considered the most susceptible to Covid-19. Even China has started to vaccinate seniors since March . Why is Hong Kong so behind on this policy? It is a very cruel way to treat our elders. We have no hope of getting my dad vaccinated. Care home management says that even post-vaccination, residents may still not be allowed out or to have visitors normally. We must do more to help the thousands of elderly people facing this inhumane treatment across Hong Kong. Charles Hulac, Mid-Levels