Coronavirus: Hong Kong ‘to boost jabs uptake for unvaccinated elderly, seek data on shots for toddlers’; city logs 4,265 cases
- Pandemic adviser Professor Lau Yu-lung says health officials seeking data on inoculating toddlers from vaccine suppliers BioNTech and Sinovac
- One in 10 of all infected seniors over age of 60 and toddlers hospitalised due to contracting coronavirus, Lau adds
Hong Kong aims to boost coronavirus jab uptake among unvaccinated elderly residents and will seek data on whether to inoculate toddlers, a health expert has said, a day after Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu met government pandemic advisers for the first time as leader.
Professor Lau Yu-lung, chairman of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, who attended Friday’s meeting, also revealed on Saturday that nearly 10 per cent of children under the age of three and elderly residents over 60 had been hospitalised after contracting Covid-19.
His remarks came as Hong Kong reported 4,265 new Covid-19 cases, 231 of which were imported, and seven additional deaths on Saturday. It was the third straight day with more than 4,000 new cases reported.
The city’s overall coronavirus tally stands at 1,317,489 infections and 9,461 related fatalities.
Larry Lee Lap-yip, a chief manager at the Hospital Authority, said among the critical cases was an 18-month-old girl admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s accident and emergency department on Wednesday for fever and heart palpitations after catching the virus.