Coronavirus: Hong Kong’s ‘immunity barrier’ short-lived unless more residents get third vaccine dose, pandemic adviser warns, as city logs 363 infections

Hong Kong has created a Covid-19 “immunity barrier” through millions of people having been infected, but a higher inoculation rate is needed to bolster the protection, a government adviser has said, as health authorities reported the lowest daily number of cases since February 6.

But Professor Wallace Lau Chak-sing, convenor of an advisory panel on coronavirus vaccines, warned on Saturday that the protection would be short-lived unless more residents received at least three doses.

“Because of the immunity barrier, we now have room to breathe a sigh of relief,” he told a radio programme. “But it is only short-term, and we cannot fully relax.”

Health authorities on Saturday confirmed 363 Covid-19 infections, 25 of which were imported, and 10 deaths related to the virus. The daily tally was the lowest since Hong Kong reported 342 infections on February 6.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the Centre for Health Protection’s communicable disease branch, also revealed officials had detected five samples in each of the two sublineages of Omicron, BA.2.12 and BA.2.12.1. The infected people were discovered at the airport, she added.

Chuang said the World Health Organization had observed a higher transmissibility with the two sublineages, but the severity of the illness they caused appeared to be similar to other lineages.