Explainer | What you need to know about Hong Kong’s Covid-19 vaccination drive for children, and should parents be worried about side effects?
- Children aged 12 and above can begin booking BioNTech shots from Friday and receive the jabs as soon as Monday
- Study found the vaccine provided a 100 per cent protection rate after both doses, while no serious adverse events were reported
Hong Kong is set to follow in the footsteps of at least 13 other countries, including the United States and Israel, in lowering the Covid-19 vaccination age limit to 12.
This means from next week, more than 240,000 people aged between 12 and 15 – about 3 per cent of the city’s 7.5 million population – will become eligible for the German-made BioNTech jab.
But only about 36 per cent of 700 secondary school pupils polled by the University of Hong Kong said they were willing to take the vaccine, while many parents preferred to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach.
It remains to be seen if the extended coverage can lead to a surge in vaccination bookings, with just more than 15 per cent of the population fully vaccinated so far.
The Post looks at the government’s plans and what people should know about the vaccination drive for schoolchildren.
1. When and how will the government’s vaccination drive for schoolchildren start?
