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Opinion | Covid-19 vaccines for the elderly are one of Hong Kong’s best shots at opening back up to the world
- The shocking death rate among older people highlights the need to ramp up vaccination among this part of the community
- Case numbers may be easing overall but the city must guard against another surge when rules are relaxed
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Why you can trust SCMP
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The Hong Kong government has finally made the significant and necessary decision to ease flight bans and social distancing from next month.
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After weeks of chaos and a shocking death rate from the city’s fifth wave of Covid-19, the government finally set its priorities straight to reduce deaths and severe cases, abandoning the unrealistic goal of cutting off all local transmissions with universal screening.
Time has been lost and the city government should learn a lesson. It wasted several precious weeks in January even though it knew a massive surge in cases was coming.
In that time, it could have vaccinated elderly nursing home residents and ramped up health facilities and staff numbers.
The coming weeks will be critical.
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Covid-19: Hong Kong to open schools, lift flight ban, cut quarantine time and suspend mass testing
Covid-19: Hong Kong to open schools, lift flight ban, cut quarantine time and suspend mass testing
A Hong Kong University study projects 4.4 million people in the city have already been infected and the outbreak will taper off.
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