Hong Kong has finally achieved a Covid-19 vaccination rate of at least one jab for more than 90 per cent of the eligible population. Regrettably, we are not able to report that this includes our most senior citizens, or over-80s. Otherwise, official Covid death figures would be considerably lower and not so centred among them. Not long ago, before the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus took over, some experts said the city could consider living with the virus when the rate exceeded 90 per cent. But that has turned out not to have made any difference to the tsunami of new infections unleashed each day by the fifth wave of the pandemic; or to have stemmed the inexorable rise in the death toll, especially of the elderly, among whom the single-jab rate is still around only 50 per cent. Now, rightly, the focus is shifting to a reduction in the risk of serious illness and death. That is a message that must cut through if the remaining resistance to vaccination in the wider community, as well as aged care homes ravaged by infection, is to be overcome. Too often it is based on the mistaken view that if Covid-19 still kills people, vaccination must be useless. It has been established, and reinforced by the daily official breakdown of hundreds of recent deaths that unvaccinated victims, especially among the elderly, are much more likely to become seriously ill or die. If that is not incentive enough to spur a redoubled, concerted effort on the part of all concerned, from health authorities to care homes to families, to convince the elderly and their loved ones that there is little to fear from vaccination compared with unprotected infection, it is hard to tell what is. The statistics speak for themselves, louder each day. Take the latest figures – more than 52,500 new coronavirus cases and 136 related deaths reported in the previous 24 hours, including 97 not vaccinated and 73 from care homes, of which 72 per cent are infected. Hong Kong must boost efforts to win ‘people’s war’ against Covid-19: expert It is not clear when the proposed compulsory Covid testing campaign will begin – in the middle of the month as reported and some mainland advisers are urging, or the beginning of next month as some other experts suggest. What is clear is that there is no longer any room for irresolute action to close loopholes in the city’s defences. In this regard Xia Baolong, director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, is reported to have told a coordinating group that local authorities should have the courage to shoulder their arduous responsibilities and uphold their oath of office by taking “concrete actions” to battle the coronavirus pandemic. The city’s resources are under unbearable pressure. But when the fifth wave of contagion is spent, local authorities must see that we never again leave the elderly, whether in home or aged-care, defenceless and vulnerable to any resurgence. Every life matters.