Full-day sessions for kindergartens and primary schools are currently off the table entirely, as only children aged 12 and above can be vaccinated under the city’s inoculation rules.

Many teachers at the city’s hundreds of local secondary schools had already received the jab, Yeung said, while over 90 per cent of teaching staff at government schools were vaccinated.

Yeung said the bureau would ask secondary schools to provide figures on teacher and student vaccination rates next week so the government would have a better grasp of the situation, adding the bureau would look into relaxing rules so primary schools and kindergartens could resume full-day classes depending on “the overall pandemic situation and vaccination rate”.

At Scientia Secondary School in Ho Man Tin, about 68 per cent of Form Six students had already received at least one jab, just shy of the mark needed for full-day sessions, while other grades had vaccination rates ranging from 50 to 60 per cent.

One mother, Mary Chan, told the Post on Wednesday that her daughter in Form Two had already received one dose.

“I hope other children will attend full-day classes as early as possible. It would be great if they are vaccinated,” she said.

She said it would be better to lower the threshold to 50 per cent, but remained confident other students would get their shots and reach the 70 per cent target within two to three months.

Another mother, Christine Chan Nga-lai, said she was “very happy” her daughter was now a secondary one student, but noted she was still too young to be vaccinated.

“She is 11 years old now, which is not old enough to get the shots,” she said. “I’ll ask her to get it after she reaches 12 years old. Everyone needs to be vaccinated. It’s safer for her at school.”

She also agreed the 70 per cent vaccination threshold was too high.

“I hope the vaccination threshold can be lowered to 60 per cent,” she added. “I am not sure whether many students will get vaccinated, since some of them are not old enough.”

A Form Two student at the school, Luo Chun-ho, said he had not received the shots because he had a surgery coming up this month.

“After the surgery, I will ask my doctor if I can be vaccinated,” the 14-year-old said.

With most city universities returning to full face-to-face lessons this month, at least three – the University of Science and Technology, Polytechnic University and Baptist University – are now requiring students and staff to be fully jabbed or get tested on a regular basis before entering campus.

At HKUST on Wednesday, security guards at the entrance of the Clear Water Bay campus checked the Electronic Campus Access Pass carried by both students and staff on the first day of the new term, leading to the occasional short queue.

Under the policy, they are required to submit their vaccination records or coronavirus test results online to get the necessary pass to enter campus.

Some students told the Post the requirement was “understandable”, but one student, surnamed Lam, who had already received one dose of the vaccine, called the rules “a bit troublesome”.

“The policy can be a little bit inconvenient, but it is still OK if students and staff are given the choice of getting tested if they’re not vaccinated,” Lam said.

Another 20-year-old student, surnamed Lo, who said he had not been jabbed because of fears of side effects and “mistrust towards the government”, said the rules were reasonable given that he had the choice of undergoing regular testing.

“The pandemic situation in Hong Kong has been quite stable now with no local cases. I think it’s OK if I continue to be tested regularly if I don’t get vaccinated in the near future,” the Year Three student from the faculty of science said.