Coronavirus: Hong Kong health expert urges public ‘not to get so excited’ about herd immunity a day after city reaches vaccination target
- Vaccine committee chair says residents can still get infected even if they receive second or third jab
- Lawmaker calls for mandatory vaccine requirement for city’s elderly as Hongkongers over age 80 continue to record low inoculation rate
Hong Kong should abandon the concept of herd immunity and focus on getting the public vaccinated as soon as possible, a leading health expert has said a day after the city reached its official target of a 90 per cent first-dose inoculation rate.
“Don’t get so excited about reaching ‘herd immunity’, you can still get infected even if you have recovered or have received a second or third dose of a Covid-19 vaccine,” said Professor Lau Yu-lung, who chairs the government’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases.
Herd immunity refers to when a large portion of an area’s population becomes resistant to a specific disease, reducing the chances of it spreading.
“We shouldn’t use the word immunity because that implies you won’t get sick. Sorry, you will still get infected,” Lau told a television programme on Sunday.
“The vaccine offers protection by helping to prevent severe disease and death,” he said, adding he believed that receiving a third jab should become a standard health measure.
Lau also personally recommended that residents above the age of 60 should receive four doses of a Covid-19 vaccine as a result of having lower immunity than younger people, adding he would propose shortening the interval between the second and third jab from the current three months if the first two shots were carried out quickly.
