Coronavirus: Hong Kong cuts interval for Sinovac jabs for care home residents as another 52,523 new cases are confirmed across city
- Officials confirm 52,523 new coronavirus infections, pushing overall tally to 403,080 cases
- Health official warns infections in homes for the elderly and disabled are very serious, with Covid-19 spreading to 72 per cent of facilities for the aged
Hong Kong has cut the recommended interval between the first and second dose of the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine for care home residents from four weeks to three, as the city battles a worsening coronavirus crisis with more than 52,500 new cases confirmed on Friday.
Officials recorded another 52,523 new coronavirus infections, 11 of which were imported, pushing the overall tally to 403,080 cases.
Dr Albert Au Ka-wing, a principal medical and health officer at the Centre for Health Protection, revealed the change for the mainland China-made Sinovac jabs, but said the interval for the German-produced BioNTech vaccine remained the same, at 21 days between the first and second shot.
“Today is the third day of daily infections above 50,000, and we have not seen it peak yet,” Au said.
He said unvaccinated elderly care home residents who recovered from Covid-19 could receive a vaccine shot one month after recovery while those who had been inoculated could receive a dose three months later.
Another 136 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, with patients aged between 29 years and 102. Seventy-three of those who died came from care homes while 97 were unvaccinated. Twenty-one had received one dose, 17 had taken two shots, and an 89-year-old patient with multiple chronic diseases got three.
Fifty-two deaths, involving patients aged 56 to 104, took place earlier but were only reported on Friday due to backlogs. The city’s death toll rose to 1,554.