People queue up for COVID-19 tests outside a community vaccination centre especially for children and the elderly in Hong Kong on Feb 23, 2022. (PETER PARKS / AFP)

HONG KONG – Health advisers of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government have unanimously agreed to recommend lowering the minimum age for COVID-19 inoculation to six months from current three years.

Presently, children must be aged three to receive the Sinovac vaccine, while the minimum age requirement is five years for the BioNtech jab.

The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases – joined by the Chief Executive's expert advisory panel – reached the consensus on the minimum age for COVID-19 vaccination at an online meeting on Monday.

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The advisers also recommended a fourth dose for those aged 50 years and above at least three months from the third dose on par with the elderly population

The experts noted that early clinical trial data from three doses of BioNTech vaccine and two doses of Sinovac vaccine in children down to six months of age showed that both vaccines were immunogenic and had no new safety concerns, according to a government press release.

Taking into account the local context and in anticipation of a winter surge in COVID-19 infections, vaccinating this group of children will help protect them from severe disease and death, they said.

The committee also recommended a fourth dose for those aged 50 years and above at least three months from the third dose on par with the elderly population.

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They also said three doses of either of Sinovac or BioNTech vaccines are highly effective in reducing hospitalisation, severe disease and death across all age groups in the adult population.

They strongly urged completion of the recommended doses of COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible.