The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, visited Haven of Hope Christian Service District Elderly Community Service - Kin Ming Centre in Tseung Kwan O today (August 31) to view the administering of the Sinovac vaccine to around 30 elderly persons aged between 65 and 95 through the outreach service by a doctor enrolled under the vaccination subsidy scheme. 

     Today was the first time three elderly centres had jointly arranged to provide on-site COVID-19 vaccination service to elderly persons through a doctor. Arrangements were also made for elderly persons who opted for the BioNTech vaccine to visit a nearby Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) for vaccination. 
  
     The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, said, "Apart from providing vaccination services at larger institutions or organisations, the outreach vaccination team will also make arrangements for visiting doctors to provide a flexible and convenient vaccination service for the elderly at small-scale elderly centres."
  
     Elderly centres provide community support services to the elderly at district level and serve as a gathering place for them. The Department of Health has a list of doctors providing COVID-19 vaccination in a non-clinic setting which can serve as a reference to make contacts for persons in charge of elderly centres. 
  
     Mr Nip appealed to persons in charge of elderly centres as well as practitioners in district welfare to be more proactive in arranging for doctors to provide vaccination services for elderly persons or their members at their centres. "The world is being ravaged by the Delta mutant strain. Hong Kong has to build an immune barrier by further raising the vaccination rate. Elderly persons will be subject to extremely high risk of getting seriously ill and death if there is another wave of the epidemic and hence we are in full swing to promote vaccination of elderly persons. Although the number of people receiving vaccination at elderly centres may not be high, we will make our best endeavours to do so as they are the group of persons that we want to protect the most. I hope that elderly persons and their family members will act and get vaccinated immediately. Experts recommend that all elderly people who have previously received influenza vaccines can safely receive COVID-19 vaccines," he added. 
  
     Moreover, the Government has been distributing same-day tickets to persons aged 60 or above to receive vaccination at CVCs. It has also organised health talks cum vaccination activities with district organisations for elderly persons.  The "one-stop" arrangement of providing talks, question and answer sessions and vaccination service have not only enhanced elderly persons' understanding of the vaccines and eased their concerns, but also facilitated them to get vaccinated. 

Ends/Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Issued at HKT 15:38

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