Boosting vaccination among seniors, kids urged in HK amid Omicron

Experts have urged authorities in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR) to enhance the vaccination rate and strengthen the tracing of contacts to cases who tested COVID- 19 positive as the city is dealing with a potential fifthwave epidemic caused by the Omicron variant.

Hong Kong reported 33 new confirmed cases on Sunday, including 27 imported ones, five imported- related cases and one local untraceable case, which involves a 20- year- old saleswoman in a department store in Causeway Bay. Another 20 people also tested preliminary- positive.

The city has seen a surge in infections in the past month and some people have expressed worries about an explosion of infections caused by Omicron, especially with the untraceable infections recently found in Hong Kong.

As the regional government is actively promoting the reopening of the border between Hong Kong and the mainland, the wait is likely to get longer due to the new outbreak.

However, Jin Dongyan, a professor at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, dismissed such concerns and said a fifth wave could be “nipped in the bud” given Hong Kong’s “reliable and effective” epidemic prevention and control system.

There would not be a large- scale outbreak as long as the authorities carry out scientific and targeted prevention and control work, he said. “Transmission at the community level in Hong Kong has just begun but we have already taken radical measures,” he told the Global Times on Sunday, noting that the authorities should continue to strengthen the tracing of COVID- 19 cases.

He also urged an increase in vaccination coverage in the city, especially for children, the elderly and those with underlying diseases. “As can be seen from the positive cases, those who were vaccinated all showed mild or no symptoms and carried a low viral load.” The vaccination rate among the elderly aged 80 and above is only 23 percent, and the rate is also low among children, said Lau Yu- lung, chairman of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases.