Health officials also reported 86 Covid-19-linked deaths, including 15 that occurred earlier but were only just recorded due to backlog.

The city’s overall tally since the pandemic began stands at 1,185,727 cases, with 8,643 fatalities.

While residents were urged to test themselves daily to provide authorities with a snapshot of the pandemic situation in the city, the exercise faced hurdles amid scepticism over its effectiveness. Many among the elderly were also unsure how to use the government’s online self-reporting platform.

Asked about the number of infections recorded as a result of the at-home mass screening exercise, Dr Albert Au Ka-wing of the Centre for Health Protection said the centre had been continuously receiving new reports of infections on Friday but noted it would take time to compile the actual number as authorities still had to verify submissions.

“We are still adding up the figures. The preliminary numbers show that there has been an increase in reported infections,” he said.

Hong Kong voluntary mass Covid-19 testing runs into early hurdles amid scepticism

Nip also said the government would begin providing at-home vaccination with the Chinese-made Sinovac jabs for everyone aged 70 and up, as well as people with mobility issues, by the end of this month. An online platform will be set up to allow them to register for the service.

So far, only 19 residents have taken part in the government’s pilot at-home vaccination service, which was conducted right after overnight lockdown operations in their residential buildings, or via registrations collected by community groups.

Nip said it had been expected that only a small number of people would get vaccinated through the at-home service, noting that in one locked-down building he visited, most residents had already had their jabs.

“We could [only] identify … four to six persons per building that we can provide home vaccination [to],” he said.

Nip noted that over the past week, only about 34,000 vaccine doses had been administered each day – a fraction of the city’s maximum capacity of some 100,000.

“We are in a serious situation where ‘vaccine doses are waiting for people’, a circumstance similar to the fourth quarter last year before the outbreak of the fifth wave,” he said. “It will be too late to get a vaccine if one waits until a new wave has arrived.”

According to government data, more than 1.7 million people are eligible for a third dose but have not taken it, though Nip allowed that some of them could have been infected after receiving two, meaning they could afford to wait a bit.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor echoed Nip’s call for the public to get vaccinated, while also appealing to residents to take part in the voluntary testing scheme.

“If residents do not fight the pandemic together, we will have to pay for the huge consequences,” Lam said on Friday, describing the recent vaccination figures as “stagnant”.

A joint scientific committee under the Centre for Health Protection had issued recommendations on Thursday saying people aged 60 or older should get a fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose at least three months after their last one for better protection.

The recommendation was based on the fact that the vast majority of recent Covid-19 deaths have occurred among the elderly.

Over 95 per cent of the more than 8,400 Covid-related deaths recorded in the ongoing fifth wave of infections have involved people aged at least 60.

‘More Hong Kong children suffering from inflammation after recovering from Covid-19’

Some countries, such as Israel, Britain and France, have already started giving out fourth doses to their elderly citizens.

In Hong Kong, immunocompromised people, such as those undergoing cancer treatment and recipients of organ transplants, are currently allowed to get a fourth dose three months after their third.

Professor Lau Yu-lung, a member of the government’s Advisory Panel on Covid-19 Vaccines and its Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, said on Friday that there was currently “no need” to push for a fourth dose among those younger than 60.

“As people grow older, their health and immunity generally deteriorate. As we’ve seen in the fifth wave, most Covid-19 deaths were among those who were over 60 years old and had other long-term illnesses,” he told a radio programme.

“We must protect the elderly by administering a fourth dose three months after the third dose to prevent coronavirus deaths down the line.”

Lau added that those younger than 60 with no underlying health or immunity issues “should be well protected” if they had three vaccine shots, regardless of whether they took BioNTech or Sinovac.

“At the moment, unless there’s another new coronavirus variant, there’s no need for people under 60 years old to get a fourth shot,” Lau said.

Lau also reiterated that while there was still a possibility of contracting Covid-19 even if a person was fully vaccinated, the point of the jabs was to reduce the risk of severe illness and death.

All community vaccination centres providing Covid-19 vaccines to people aged 12 or above, excluding the ones at CUHK Medical Centre and Leighton Centre in Causeway Bay, will distribute same-day tickets to those aged 60 or older to get inoculated.

Additional reporting by Kathleen Magramo