Hong Kong fourth wave: full delivery of city’s free coronavirus vaccine scheme ‘may take until end of 2021’

Name: Hong Kong tightens social-distancing measures to cope with fourth wave surge of Covid-19 cases
Uploaded: 2020-12-02T04:47:42.000Z
Duration: 2 min 15 s
Description: Hong Kong tightens social-distancing measures to cope with fourth wave surge of Covid-19 cases

Government pandemic adviser warns vaccinating the population could last until next December, city only halfway through its coronavirus fight

Health secretary Sophia Chan says entire public to be offered free vaccination next year on voluntary basis, with priority for frontline workers, the elderly

Reading Time:5 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

99+

Covid-19 vaccine doses will be provided free to city residents when ready, the health minister said on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

Elizabeth CheungandKanis Leung

Published: 12:47pm, 2 Dec 2020Updated: 12:28pm, 8 Dec 2020

All Hong Kong residents will be offered free doses when a Covid-19 vaccine is available next year, the health minister has promised, while a top pandemic adviser to the government cautioned that it could take until the end of 2021 to get everyone inoculated.

The city confirmed 103 new infections on Wednesday in a reflection of its still-escalating fourth wave of Covid-19, as neighbouring Macau revealed that it could roll out a vaccine for emergency use as early as the end of this month, and Britain became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for widespread use.

“We will enable members of the public to be vaccinated on a voluntary basis, and propose to provide the vaccination free of charge,” Hong Kong health secretary Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee told lawmakers.

Among the new cases, 15 of which could not be traced, were those adding to the fast-growing clusters emerging from a Tseung Kwan O construction site and a care home for intellectually disabled people in Shau Kei Wan.

02:15

Hong Kong tightens social-distancing measures to cope with fourth wave surge of Covid-19 cases

The dance venue cluster, the city’s largest single Covid-19 outbreak of the crisis, also continued to expand, while another case was identified at a major private hospital.

Warning of the mounting strain on the city’s health care system, the Hospital Authority said more than half of the negative pressure Covid-19 beds at public intensive care units were already occupied.