Coronavirus: vaccine outreach teams to visit ‘all Hong Kong care facilities by Friday’, at-home jabs to be offered to residents with mobility issues
- Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip says outreach teams have visited more than 900 care homes so far
- Nip says social welfare group will provide at-home vaccination services for residents with mobility issues who live alone
Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Tak-kuen, who is responsible for the local vaccination campaign, said on Sunday that 52 per cent of residents at 1,096 elderly care homes had received at least one vaccine dose.
“The outreach teams have visited more than 900 care homes at the moment and I believe that by Friday it should be possible to cover all the remaining facilities,” Nip told a television programme. “But this is only the first stage … We will see how to accelerate the provision of the second and third doses.”
Currently, there are 16 outreach teams with medical professionals from the health department and private sector involved in the inoculation programme. Nip added that more manpower would be deployed if necessary.
Since the beginning of a fifth wave of coronavirus infections in the city, 745 residential care homes have logged cases, with about 26,300 residents and 6,580 workers infected as of Sunday.
More than two-thirds of homes for the disabled, or 230 facilities, have also seen cases, with 4,800 residents and 1,710 staff infected.
