Government announces arrangement on COVID-19 vaccinations for persons with previous COVID-19 infection
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Starting today, the Government will gradually notify via SMS messages those who have been discharged after recovery from previous COVID-19 infection and have not yet received any COVID-19 vaccine that they can receive a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at any Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) or private clinic enrolled in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme. The Hospital Authority will also provide a customised factsheet on COVID-19 vaccination outlining the relevant vaccination arrangement to those recovered persons upon discharge from hospital.
Those recovered persons can bring along the SMS message/factsheet concerned and go directly to any CVC or private doctor enrolled in the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme to make enquiries and arrange for vaccination following the recommended interval. No prior online booking is required.
Concerning the various relaxations on social distancing measures under the concept of a "vaccine bubble", those recovered persons will be regarded to have completed the vaccination course 14 days after one dose of COVID-19 vaccination and a special arrangement will be made to reflect such a condition on their paper and electronic record of vaccination. Meanwhile, if the recovered persons have already received one dose of COVID-19 vaccine after discharge and have an appointment for the second dose, the Government will cancel the second-dose appointment for them. They can contact the service provider of their vaccination earlier to obtain the updated paper record of vaccination.
The COVID-19 Vaccination Programme has been providing two vaccines, which are BioNTech, an mRNA vaccine, and Sinovac, an inactivated vaccine. According to the latest recommendation of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (collectively the JSC) under the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health and the Chief Executive's expert advisory panel, recovered persons who wish to receive the BioNTech vaccine should wait for at least 90 days after discharge from previous infection. If they wish to receive the Sinovac vaccine, they should wait for at least 180 days after discharge from previous infection.
Lists of CVCs and designated private clinics are available at www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/pdf/List_of_CVC_Venues.pdf and www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/VSS respectively.
Ends/Friday, May 21, 2021
Issued at HKT 19:00
Issued at HKT 19:00
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