Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s elder care vaccination plan trying to save lives, not pressure older residents, minister says

‘It is backed by medical evidence that [elderly residents] need to get inoculated,’ Patrick Nip tells reporters at National Day reception

The new programme will see residents of 10 elder care facilities scheduled for jabs unless they opt out; city records 4 imported infections on Friday

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Residents of 10 Hong Kong elder care facilities will soon be automatically signed up for Covid-19 jabs unless they or their families expressly reject the vaccine. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 1:09pm, 1 Oct 2021Updated: 8:49pm, 1 Oct 2021

Hong Kong officials have defended a plan to begin automatically scheduling residents of care homes for Covid-19 jabs, rejecting criticism that the government is unfairly piling pressure on the elderly to get vaccinated.

Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who is in charge of Hong Kong’s inoculation drive, on Friday stressed that the city’s elderly population needed the jabs to protect themselves, pointing to a very low inoculation rate of under 10 per cent at care facilities.

“The elderly have to get vaccinated because they have a high chance of infection and dying from severe illness,” he told reporters after attending a reception to celebrate National Day.

“We hope this will simplify the procedure and let more elderly get vaccinated … We are absolutely not pressuring the elderly, as it is backed by medical evidence that they need to get inoculated.”

Nip’s defence of the new plan came as Hong Kong confirmed four new coronavirus infections on Friday – all imported – taking the city’s overall tally to 12,221 including 213 deaths.