Coronavirus: Hong Kong health expert urges public ‘not to get so excited’ about herd immunity a day after city reaches vaccination target
- Vaccine committee chair says residents can still get infected even if they receive second or third jab
- Lawmaker calls for mandatory vaccine requirement for city’s elderly as Hongkongers over age 80 continue to record low inoculation rate
Hong Kong should abandon the concept of herd immunity and focus on getting the public vaccinated as soon as possible, a leading health expert has said a day after the city reached its official target of a 90 per cent first-dose inoculation rate.
“Don’t get so excited about reaching ‘herd immunity’, you can still get infected even if you have recovered or have received a second or third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine,” said Professor Lau Yu-lung, who chairs the government’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases.
Herd immunity refers to when a large portion of an area’s population becomes resistant to a specific disease, reducing the chances of it spreading.
“We shouldn’t use the word immunity because that implies you won’t get sick. Sorry, you will still get infected,” Lau told a television programme on Sunday.
“The vaccine offers protection by helping to prevent severe disease and death,” he said, adding he believed that receiving a third jab should become a standard health measure.
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Lau also personally recommended that residents above the age of 60 should receive four doses of a Covid-19 vaccine as a result of having lower immunity than younger people, adding he would propose shortening the interval between the second and third jab from the current three months if the first two shots were carried out quickly.
On Saturday, about 6.07 million people, more than 90 per cent of the city’s eligible population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor had said the government would re-evaluate the overall situation once the city had reached its inoculation target.
However, the vaccination rate among elderly residents has remained relatively low compared to other age groups, with about 51 per cent of those aged 80 and above having received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 31 per cent having taken a second jab.
Further analysis by the health authorities found the death rate among those aged 80 or older who had not completed vaccination was 8.61 per cent, around 5.5 times higher than for vaccinated people of the same age group.
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In response to the high risk posed to senior residents, lawmaker and ophthalmologist Dr Dennis Lam Shun-chiu urged the government to consider introducing a mandatory vaccination requirement for the elderly.
“In Hong Kong, we advocate freedom but knowing that the unvaccinated elderly will pass away easily under the pandemic, we have no reason to just watch and do nothing,” Lam said on a radio programme on Sunday.
“And [unvaccinated elders] would probably make the epidemic more difficult to control, with all the close contacts affected.”
Lam said he also believed that compulsory universal testing over a period of at least four to seven days would be sufficient to eradicate the spread of Covid-19 and achieve “zero infections” in the community.
Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam had said every person in the city would have to undergo three mandatory tests as part of screening measures, with residents to receive KN95 masks and rapid testing kits to monitor their health between compulsory tests.
Sources previously told the Post that universal testing measures could begin from March 26.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong Federation of Railway Trade Union chairman, Lam Wai-keung, said about 2,500 MTR workers, a quarter of train service teams, had been infected or were in isolation since the fifth wave of the outbreak.
“About 100 to 200 MTR staff who tested positive for the virus have been recorded every day since last week, and it is expected to continue this week,” Lam said on a radio programme on Sunday, adding that many staff would have to cancel holiday leave to cope with the personnel shortage.
The MTR Corporation announced earlier it would further cut weekday services on eight lines, as well weekend and public holiday services on the East Rail, which would result in extra waiting times of about one to four minutes.
The union chairman also criticised the actions of a woman in a viral video showing her licking her hand and smearing her spit on an open train door at the Kowloon Tong MTR station.
The woman was later fined HK$5,000.
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“We strongly condemn this behaviour. Usually, after the incident, the train has to be taken back to the depot for deep cleaning, which will prolong the waiting time for passengers,” Lam said.
On Sunday, Hong Kong confirmed 31,008 new infections and a record high 153 new fatalities in the past 24 hours.
The Hospital Authority said another 76 people died earlier – also a record high – but the cases were only reported on Sunday due to a backlog. Four other deaths, which did not go through the authority’s system, were also reported.
The city’s tally of Covid-19 cases has now reached 471,617, with 2,007 related deaths.
Additional reporting by Jack Tsang
