What’s new: Hong Kong authorities have recommended that residents who are more vulnerable to serious illness receive a fourth Covid-19 jab as the number of new daily cases surges, plunging the city deeper into its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic two years ago.
People aged 12 or above with weak immune systems can make an appointment to receive the additional dose three months after receiving their third shot, according to a Friday government announcement.
Experts with the special administrative region’s Centre for Health Protection noted in a Feb. 25 meeting that an additional dose for immunocompromised patients “is strongly recommended for better protection.”
The background: The Asian financial hub has been struggling to tame a fifth wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, with cases hitting a daily record of 56,827 on Thursday.
The flare-up, which has largely been caused by the omicron variant, has prompted the government to test the entire population of 7.4 million three times in March, with Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam this week ruling out a wholesale city-wide lockdown.
The dire situation last month elicited an order from President Xi Jinping for the special administrative region to make containing the outbreak its “overriding task” and mobilize all available resources and take all necessary measures to safeguard people’s lives.
The city has recorded more than 1,300 Covid-related deaths in public hospitals since late December, mostly among the elderly and patients with chronic diseases, a spike from just several hundred prior to the latest outbreak.
The city on Friday recorded 136 new deaths, 131 of whom were people aged over 65, with health authorities saying that more than 90% of those that have died in this wave had not received two doses of the vaccine.
Hong Kong’s vaccination rate has lagged some other regions with only 69.5% fully inoculated, compared with 87.4% in China and 79.8% in Australia, according to Our World in Data.
Contact reporter Cai Xuejiao (xuejiaocai@caixin.com)
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