The Department of Health (DH) today (March 29) announced that its 11 Elderly Health Centres (EHCs) will extend their COVID-19 vaccination walk-in service until May 31 to continue providing CoronaVac vaccination for all persons aged 65 or above with a view to encouraging and facilitating the elderly to receive COVID-19 vaccination.

     The vaccination time slots are 8.30am to 12.30pm and 2pm to 5pm from Monday to Friday (except public holidays). Elderly persons need to present their Hong Kong identity cards for registration on a first-come, first-served basis until the daily quota is full. If the daily quota is full, the staff of the centre will arrange another date and time of vaccination for the elderly. The 11 EHCs offering the walk-in vaccination service and their addresses are listed in the Annex.

     Apart from the aforementioned 11 EHCs, COVID-19 vaccination walk-in service will continue to be provided at Wan Chai EHC, Kwai Shing EHC and Tai Po EHC for their members aged 65 or above on operating days without prior booking.

     The remaining four EHCs, namely San Po Kong EHC, Shau Kei Wan EHC, Yau Ma Tei EHC and Yuen Long EHC are temporarily closed as they are situated at the same locations as the Hospital Authority's designated clinics.

     "The Comirnaty and CoronaVac vaccines are highly effective in preventing severe cases and deaths from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They can provide effective protection to those vaccinated in preventing serious complications and even death after infection. Preliminarily analysed data of the first 6 748 reported death cases in the fifth wave of the epidemic revealed that 88 per cent of the fatal cases have not received two or more doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Among the unvaccinated patients, the fatality rate for those aged 80 or above is the highest (16.11 per cent), followed by patients aged between 70 and 79 (5.98 per cent). At present, for the elderly aged 70 or above in Hong Kong, the first dose COVID-19 vaccination rate is 71 per cent and the second dose vaccination rate is 59 per cent. In other words, there are still about 280 000 elderly people in Hong Kong aged 70 or above who have not received vaccination. People who have yet to receive vaccination, especially senior citizens, chronic patients and other immunocompromised persons who face a higher risk of death after COVID-19 infection, should get vaccinated as early as possible for better self-protection," a spokesman for the DH said.

     According to the Government's current arrangements on COVID-19 vaccination, elderly people can receive the third dose at a time interval of three months after receiving the second dose. An interval of 28 days is required between the first and second doses of the CoronaVac vaccine, while an interval of 21 days is required for the Comirnaty vaccine. Elderly persons yet to receive any COVID-19 vaccination should get their first and second doses as soon as possible. Elderly persons who have received the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination for over three months should receive the third dose as soon as possible to enhance personal protection.

     For enquiries, please contact the EHCs concerned during service hours. Details are also available at www.elderly.gov.hk/eindex.html.

Ends/Tuesday, March 29, 2022
Issued at HKT 18:00

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