The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, received vaccinations against seasonal influenza and COVID-19 at Sai Wan Ho General Out-patient Clinic today (September 15). The Permanent Secretary for Health, Mr Thomas Chan; the Under Secretary for Health, Dr Cecilia Fan; the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam; the Controller of the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH), Dr Edwin Tsui; the Commissioner for Primary Healthcare of the Health Bureau (HHB), Dr Pang Fei-chau; the Director of the Strategic Purchasing Office of the HHB, Dr Cheung Wai-lun; the Chairman of the Hospital Authority (HA), Mr Henry Fan; the Chief Executive of the HA, Dr Libby Lee, and frontline healthcare workers also joined the effort and received vaccinations.

     Professor Lo said, "Seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) is one of the most effective means to prevent seasonal influenza and its complications. Get vaccinated once a year and sooner is better than later, since it takes about two weeks after vaccination for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against influenza virus infection. The summer influenza season has already arrived. To be prepared for the possible winter influenza season in one go, I strongly appeal to all members of the public to receive SIV early for effective protection in the coming year against the influenza strains predicted by the World Health Organization."
 
     SIV can effectively reduce the risks of serious illnesses and death. All members of the public aged 6 months or above, except those with known contraindications, should receive SIV. With the concerted efforts of the Government and various sectors of the community (including the medical sectors, schools, parents and residential care homes), more than 2.09 million doses of vaccines were administered under various SIV programmes in the year of 2024/25, representing an increase of some 220 000 doses (11.7 per cent) compared with the previous year, reaching a record high.

     The Government will launch the 2025/26 Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Programmes, including the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme, the Government Vaccination Programme, the Seasonal Influenza Vaccination School Outreach Programme (SIVSOP) and the Residential Care Home Vaccination Programme next Thursday (September 25) to provide free or subsidised SIV for persons aged 50 or above (including the elderly living in residential care homes); adults aged 18 to 49 with chronic medical conditions (regardless of financial status); children and adolescents aged 6 months to under 18 years; pregnant women and healthcare workers; and others. For the 2025/26 SIV programmes, the Government has procured over 1.28 million doses of four types of influenza vaccines of high quality at competitive prices. These four types of vaccines and their suppliers have all met Hong Kong's strict regulatory requirements for pharmaceutical products.

     Professor Lo added, "This year, the Government will implement five optimising initiatives under the SIV programmes, which are expanding the eligibility group, further enhancing the SIVSOP, providing recombinant influenza vaccines for the elderly living in institutions, launching the pilot scheme on vaccine procurement for family doctors, and optimising information dissemination. Among these, the Government will allow all schools (i.e. secondary schools, primary schools and kindergartens/child care centres) under the SIVSOP to freely choose both injectable inactivated influenza vaccines and live attenuated influenza vaccines (nasal vaccines) for the same or different outreach vaccination activities, aiming to raise the vaccination rate further with a more flexible arrangement. Currently, around 2 300 schools (99 per cent) have joined the outreach programme, with about 1 300 schools (58 per cent) scheduled to conduct outreach activities by the end of October. The earliest school SIV outreach activity will take place on September 29."

     Furthermore, to minimise the risk of serious complications and death after COVID-19 infection, those at high risk (particularly the elderly and persons with underlying comorbidities) should receive a free COVID-19 vaccine booster dose as soon as possible if they have received their last dose or had COVID-19 infection more than six months ago (whichever is later). Members of the public who have not received the initial dose(s) of the COVID-19 vaccine (including infants and children) should also get free COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible for dual protection. COVID-19 vaccine and SIV can be administered at the same time or separately.
 
     For more details, members of the public may call the CHP at 2125 2125 or visit the Vaccination Schemes page.

Ends/Monday, September 15, 2025
Issued at HKT 20:08

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