
Letters | Get jabbed or you pay: time for Hong Kong to get tough on Covid vaccines
- The chief executive has said frontline civil servants and teachers could be asked to get vaccinated or face compulsory tests at their own expense
- The strategy ought to be extended to employees of publicly funded organisations and licensed professionals
On June 1, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority wrote a letter addressing the chief executives of all authorised financial institutions, requiring the institutions to strongly encourage their staff to take the Covid-19 shots.
The institutions were asked to draw up a list of staff performing client-facing roles or critical support functions that were expected to receive inoculation. The staff not yet vaccinated were required to be tested for Covid-19 every two weeks, with the first round of tests taken by June 30.
Likewise, the Insurance Authority and the Property Management Services Authority should require all licensed practitioners to take the Covid-19 shots, and those who refuse should undergo mandatory, regular Covid-19 tests.
I urge the government to extend this effective strategy to the employees of all publicly funded organisations and licensed professionals.
Langjia Chen, Kowloon Tong
