Coronavirus: walk-in vaccination scheme for Hong Kong’s elderly to kick off on Thursday

About 4,600 slots will be available each day for those aged 70 and above, government says, a plan aimed at encouraging more jabs among the demographic

City confirms one imported Covid-19 case on Tuesday, involving a 37-year-old man carrying the L452R mutation

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Elderly Hong Kong residents offer a thumbs up after receiving their BioNTech jabs in April. Photo: Nora Tam

Published: 1:52pm, 27 Jul 2021Updated: 10:24pm, 27 Jul 2021

Hongkongers aged 70 or older can get vaccinated against Covid-19 without booking from Thursday, a move designed to encourage more of the city’s elderly – a demographic that has lagged behind other groups – to take the jabs.

The government on Tuesday revealed that a daily quota of about 4,600 walk-in slots would be available in total for seniors at 24 of the city’s 29 community vaccination centres.

Separately, more appointments would become available from Wednesday via the online booking system, with people allowed to schedule four weeks in advance rather than three.

Walk-ins for same-day vaccinations will be available from 7.45am on Thursday on a first come, first served basis.

“We hope that this arrangement can further enable the elderly to get vaccinated,” a government spokesman said. “As the same-day tickets will be distributed daily, it is not necessary for elderly persons to queue up at community vaccination centres too early for a ticket.”

He added that, depending on the response to the new arrangement, the government would consider extending the walk-in scheme to those aged 60 or above.

Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed just one Covid-19 case, an imported infection, pushing the overall tally to 11,979.