Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at letters@scmp.com or filling in this Google form . Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. Hospital Authority statistics show that the overwhelming majority of deaths due to Covid-19 are among those aged 60 and above , particularly the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated. Knowing before the fifth wave that this age group was most at risk, the government had vaccinated residents of elderly residential institutions through outreach efforts such as the “assess and vaccinate” programme. But with more than 90 per cent of our elderly living at home, according to 2016 Census figures, strategies are needed so that vaccinations reach them. Assistance in booking vaccinations was provided at district health centres, mobile vaccination was rolled out, and private doctors were incentivised to vaccinate the elderly through the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme. But have these measures really reached the bedridden, whose caregivers are rightly concerned about the elderly person’s fitness for vaccination, and those who would like to be vaccinated, but are too scared to step out? Although same-day tickets for the elderly are given out at community vaccination centres so that they do not need to book appointments, it ends up requiring two rounds of travelling to get the tickets before they run out. If the government is serious about inoculating most of the population, it must exhaust all means to reach the most vulnerable people. Home vaccination should be explored as a strategy. Take Singapore, for example. Apart from allowing elderly walk-ins at any vaccination centre and organising mobile vaccination teams near areas where many seniors live, the Ministry of Health has dedicated teams to vaccinate seniors at home. These efforts are not in vain with Singapore already having fully vaccinated over 90 per cent of its population aged 70 and above, compared to Hong Kong’s 46 per cent. The mainland has adopted a similar strategy to reduce barriers to vaccine accessibility. Tianjin’s Centre for Disease Control allowed all those aged 60 and above to enjoy at-home vaccination beginning last December. In Yangxi county in Guangdong province, mobile vaccination teams knocked on doors to share information about vaccines with those who had not been vaccinated, especially the vaccine-hesitant elderly. At-home vaccination for elderly people with frailties, disabilities and hypertension was provided to reduce their need to travel. While the government is concentrating current efforts on building isolation facilities and makeshift hospitals, it must prepare for the long haul and take vaccines to elderly people’s doors as soon as possible. Maira Qamar, Tsuen Wan, and Emily Ma, Sha Tin Minimise risks of mass testing with rapid pre-screening The government has announced that compulsory mass testing is to be launched in March. Though more details are yet to be unveiled, the effectiveness of this “unprecedented” move is questionable. Having an early school summer holiday to free up space for testing and quarantine is simply illogical. With the current suspension of face-to-face schooling, most school campuses are already vacant and could be used for testing and quarantine. Students’ learning, however, would be severely hampered by a two-month hiatus in the middle of the semester. With nothing for students to do at home, parents may be forced to take them out for extracurricular activities, risking the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, people flocking to testing centres may result in a higher infection risk. Instead, the government should make good use of rapid testing kits to identify Covid-19 cases. Those who test positive using the rapid testing kit should stay at home and wait for further instructions. Those with a negative result could go out and take another test at a centre for verification. Large-scale community testing is a good idea but requires meticulous arrangements to minimise unnecessary risks and disturbance to the public. At least 100,000 quarantine beds should also be secured before the launch to handle a possible surge in cases. Hopefully the government can make effective use of this testing exercise, and not waste the help of the mainland and different sectors of the city. Alison Ng, Olympic Civil servants should rethink their attitude Thousands of civil servants will be deployed to help the government implement compulsory universal testing in March. I have lately spoken to my former colleagues in the government. Lots of them expressed anger and dismay over deployment to testing sites. I understand that our civil servants are being asked to perform duties outside their normal work. However, I wish civil servants would understand that compared to our struggling lower and middle classes, they have stable jobs, generous salaries paid on time, annual salary increments, and allowance and retirement fund contributions from their employer, the Hong Kong government. We do not need civil servants with a “three look-forwards” attitude: look forward to being paid on time, look forward to their next holiday and look forward to retirement. We need civil servants to focus on how they can serve the public better. Jonathan Mok, Pok Fu Lam Allow parents to stay with hospitalised Covid-positive kids It was really heartbreaking to read about a mother being forced to leave her 11-month-old child in hospital. We know hospital facilities are stretched to capacity and space is cramped, but forcing a child to stay without parents is absurd and inhumane. Not only will the child be traumatised, which could be life-lasting, but having a distraught child crying uncontrollably can only create more problems for medical staff and other patients, and nurses will have to be deployed to pacify the crying child. If a parent was allowed to be with their child it would be of great help all round, as the child would be less traumatised and this would also alleviate the extra burden on the nursing staff. Also, if the child has recovered enough to be sent home but is forced to stay up to seven days because it is on the books, this is insanity. Nothing is carved in stone, and empathy and common sense should prevail. N. Sousa, Repulse Bay