Covid-19 vaccines for the elderly are one of Hong Kong’s best shots at opening back up to the world
- The shocking death rate among older people highlights the need to ramp up vaccination among this part of the community
- Case numbers may be easing overall but the city must guard against another surge when rules are relaxed
The Hong Kong government has finally made the significant and necessary decision to ease flight bans and social distancing from next month.
Time has been lost and the city government should learn a lesson. It wasted several precious weeks in January even though it knew a massive surge in cases was coming.
The coming weeks will be critical.
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Covid-19: Hong Kong to open schools, lift flight ban, cut quarantine time and suspend mass testing
A Hong Kong University study projects 4.4 million people in the city have already been infected and the outbreak will taper off.
However, experience in other countries indicates that cases often surge when countries begin to relax their rules – and now is not the moment to unwind.
The unusually high death rate in Hong Kong highlights the importance of vaccinating the elderly.
According to government figures released on Sunday, 70 per cent of the city’s 5,435 Covid-19 deaths were among people aged 80 or above and among those fatalities, 74 per cent were unvaccinated.
The case fatality rate of the unvaccinated above 80 was 15 per cent, while it was 2.62 per cent for those who had two doses of vaccine.
The BioNTech vaccine offered greater protection, with a case fatality rate of 1.51 per cent among those double-dosed and above 80.
But the Sinovac shots also helped to reduce deaths, with just 2.95 per cent of fully inoculated cases above 80 dying.
So far only 39 per cent of the population over 80 years old has received two doses, compared with 68.5 per cent for those aged between 70 and 79.
The government must find ways to make it even easier for the elderly to be vaccinated.
It has rightly announced it will give the oral antiviral drug molnupiravir and Paxlovid to patients aged 60 or above. But the authorities have to make sure these patients can be treated in the early stages of infection when the drugs are most effective.
Sustainable staffing in health facilities and nursing homes is another bottleneck, but crucial to reducing deaths among the elderly.
With the right priorities and better planning, let’s see if the Hong Kong government can do a better job this time to prepare for the reopening of the economy.
