The Chief Executive, Mrs Carrie Lam, visited the HKU Children Community Vaccination Centre at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong today (March 18) to know more about the arrangements being made by parents and schools for children to receive COVID-19 vaccination at the centre and give encouragement to the medical team on duty.

     During her visit to the HKU Children Community Vaccination Centre at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong, Mrs Lam, accompanied by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, received a briefing from the Dean of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong, Professor Gabriel Leung, and the Chief Executive Officer of Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong, Dr Kenneth Tsang, on the operation of the centre, including the special dilution procedure for the BioNTech vaccine for children. She also chatted with medical personnel and other working staff. Mrs Lam expressed her gratitude to the experienced medical team of the HKU and Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong for their care for the children, providing a comfortable and safe environment for vaccination. She also thanked parents and school staff members for responding to the Government's appeal to arrange vaccination for children at the centre to safeguard their health.

     The COVID-19 Vaccination Programme has been expanded to cover children aged 5 to 11 since January 21 this year. The minimum age for receiving the Sinovac vaccine was subsequently lowered to 3 years old from February 15. In order to raise the vaccination rate among children and teenagers, the Government has been assisting  schools in arranging group vaccination through various means, including arranging for mobile vaccination stations or outreach teams to visit schools and allowing group bookings for vaccination at the Community Vaccination Centres or designated Student Health Service Centres of the Department of Health . The Government has also reserved quotas at some vaccination centres for group bookings by schools.

     Mrs Lam said, "As of yesterday, over 290 000 children aged 3 to 11 have received the first vaccine dose , representing a vaccination rate of 56.1 per cent. About 230 000 children are yet to be vaccinated. I appeal to parents to make arrangements for their young children to get vaccinated immediately in order to reduce their risk of serious illness or death in case of infection, while at the same time creating favourable conditions for students to return to school to have different learning activities."

Ends/Friday, March 18, 2022
Issued at HKT 20:47

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