Coronavirus: children as young as 5 must have 1 jab by September 30 to enter places covered by vaccine pass in Hong Kong
- Tougher, two-jab rule will take effect on November 30, health authorities say
- Government also reveals child’s vaccination QR code can be presented on paper or as photo saved on mobile phone
Children aged five to 11 will have to be inoculated with at least one jab against Covid-19 by September 30 to dine out in restaurants and enter most other business establishments in Hong Kong under an expansion of the vaccine pass arrangement, the government has announced.
But by November 30, children in that age bracket must have received two vaccine doses, health authorities on Thursday said, as they confirmed more than 11,000 new infections, the most in a single day since March 24.
Announcing details of the vaccine pass expansion, Undersecretary for Health Dr Libby Lee Ha-yun urged parents not to delay in inoculating their children against the coronavirus.
“At the moment actually, the rate of children aged five to 11 having taken one shot has reached 83 per cent and 70 per cent for two shots,” she said. “In other words, only 68,000 children have never taken one jab. So I urge parents to get your children vaccinated as soon as possible.”
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Lee also defended the move against recent criticism from some quarters of society, such as the NGO Hong Kong Committee on Children’s Rights which earlier said the policy change raised “serious concerns” for the rights of minors.
