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.

As of Thursday night, 54 patients were in critical condition, 37 of whom were unvaccinated. Eighty-five people were in a serious condition, including 59 who were not inoculated.

Au said infections in homes for the elderly and disabled were very serious, with about 755 facilities having reported infections in the fifth wave.

He revealed that Covid-19 had spread to 72 per cent of facilities for the aged. About 9,800 care home residents, or 13 per cent of the total across the city, were sick while 9.5 per cent of their staff, or 2,850, were infected as well, he said.

A total of 302 care homes for the elderly, or 53 per cent of the city’s total, had reported 10 or more infections among residents and staff. Residents of homes for the aged accounted for a significant proportion of the city’s Covid-19 casualties, accounting for 43.8 per cent, or around 680 of the death toll.

At homes for the disabled, 60 per cent of the city’s total had an outbreak, while 3,100 residents, or 17 per cent of the total, and 1,030 staff, or 9.8 per cent, were infected, he added. One hundred, or 56 per cent, of homes for the disabled reported at least 10 infections.

Earlier in the day, Professor Lau Yu-lung, who chairs the government’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, told a radio programme that recovered elderly patients could get jabbed within a month of beating the virus, just a fraction of the officially recommended wait time.

“People can still get vaccinated after infection. We could wait a few months [to get jabbed] when there was no outbreak in the city, but we cannot wait now,” he said.

University of Hong Kong microbiologist Ho Pak-leung also told radio listeners that the city should allow patients to get jabbed four weeks after recovery, down from 90 days currently recommended for the German-made BioNTech vaccine, and six months for Chinese-produced Sinovac shots.

But he added that hitting 90 per cent vaccination coverage would not build up herd immunity, a marked change of tune from what experts and officials had said earlier in the pandemic.

“Getting vaccinated now – don’t make this mistake – is aimed at preventing hospitalisation and severe illnesses, not building herd immunity and preventing virus spread. This concept of herd immunity has been burst already,” Ho admitted.

However, according to database Our World in Data, the seven-day rolling average of deaths per 1 million people in Hong Kong was 17.8, topping the global chart as of Thursday. Latvia came second, with 10.71, and Georgia ranked third at 9.05.

Lau urged care homes for the elderly to get their residents vaccinated as soon as possible, regardless of whether facilities had reported any cases. Lau said it was also unnecessary to test elderly residents for Covid-19 before vaccination.

‘Out of oxygen’: Hong Kong medical staff share distressing Covid-19 scenes

“Recovered elderly patients remain vulnerable even though immunity builds up after infection. [Infection] should not be an excuse to delay vaccinating the elderly at care homes,” he said, adding that recovered Omicron patients could contract it again, but reinfection was less severe.

According to the latest guidelines from government experts issued in December, recovered Covid-19 patients are recommended to wait at least 90 days before receiving their first dose of the BioNTech vaccine, and at least 180 days before getting Sinovac.

As of Friday, 6.06 million people, or 89.9 per cent of the city’s population aged 12 and up, had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.

Civil service chief Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who is overseeing the inoculation programme, said he believed the city leader’s goal of vaccinating 90 per cent of the population would be achieved no later than Saturday.

“After achieving the goal, our target group remains the elderly and children aged between 3 to 11. People should also complete their second and third dose of vaccination as fast as possible,” he told the radio programme. “We will push the goal of second dose vaccination from 80 to 90 per cent.”

Nip said the government would also provide vaccination outreach services to schools and elderly care homes in the coming weeks. More than 90 schools have applied so far.

An additional Sinovac vaccination centre dedicated to children, teenagers and the elderly will be set up at the Hong Kong Spinners Industrial Building in Cheung Sha Wan on Monday.

“Our priority is to vaccinate the elderly. When we can fulfil the demand from the elderly, we will gradually open more quotas for others and shorten the interval between the second and third dose,” Nip said.

Hong Kong officials must ‘uphold oath’ in anti-Covid fight

The government announced on Friday night it had adjusted the dosage schedule under its so-called vaccine pass scheme for adolescents aged 12 to 17 based on expert recommendations.

Under the new guidelines, those in the age group are required to receive their second vaccine dose six months after the first, as part of the second phase of the scheme, which will run from April 30 to June 29. In the final stage, which begins on June 30, they must get a booster shot nine months after their second dose.

Meanwhile, China Railway Construction Group will hand over land to China State Construction International Holdings by the end of the week for the next stage of development for a makeshift hospital at the Lok Ma Chau Loop.

Laputa Hung, commercial director of China Railway Construction, said the project had been immensely challenging but the site would soon have basic water and power supplies.

“Additional resources were deployed as we could not arrange manpower like usual. Planning, design and manpower arrangement had to happen on the go as we began construction,” he said.

Hong Kong and China Gas, known as Towngas, said it took a team of 200 working around the clock for four days to ensure a gas supply was available.

The makeshift hospital is expected to provide 1,000 emergency beds and up to 10,000 isolation units.

The site belongs to the Lok Ma Chau Loop Innovation and Technology Park project, which is also operated by China Railway Construction.

In other developments, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department said all public wet markets would from Friday close an hour earlier at 7pm for thorough cleaning.

The Chief Executive’s Office said a family member of its director, Chan Kwok-ki, tested positive after undergoing rapid antigen screening. Chan and other household members tested negative but were identified as close contacts and will undergo home quarantine.

Additional reporting by Jess Ma