This photo taken on Feb 26, 2021 shows a community vaccination center in Hong Kong. (WANG SHEN / XINHUA)
HONG KONG – Hong Kong reported six new imported COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, as the city announced that walk-in vaccination services will be further expanded to five more target groups starting Thursday.
In a statement, the government said that same-day immunization services will be expanded to staff of residential care homes, medical organizations, catering businesses and bars, as well as school personnel, construction workers and school bus drivers and attendants.
Same-day immunization services will be expanded to staff of residential care homes, medical organizations, catering businesses and bars, as well as school personnel, construction workers and school bus drivers and attendants, the Hong Kong government said
The move aims to further raise the vaccination rate of the target groups, the government said.
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Same-day tickets will be distributed daily at 21 Community Vaccination Centres (CVCs) from 7:45 am on a first-come, first served basis. The CVCs will be closed between 1:30 pm and 2:30 pm daily for cleaning and disinfection, and the last session of vaccination will be held from 7 pm to 7:30 pm.
The walk-in vaccination services, rolled out in July for people aged 70 and above, were expanded to people aged 60 years and over and then to students aged 12 and above last month.
As of Monday evening, some 4.26 million Hong Kong people had received at least the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. Among them, more than 3.62 million had been fully vaccinated with two shots, accounting for 53.9 percent of the eligible population in the financial hub.
In a separate statement, the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said Hong Kong’s tally stood at 12,129.
Tuesday’s newly reported cases involved two women who had traveled from the Philippines, one man and woman from the United Kingdom, one man from Tanzania, and one woman from the United States.
All of the new patients, aged between 37 and 50, had been fully vaccinated.
Two of them stayed at different hotels in Sai Ying Pun, the CHP said.
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One of the women who came from the Philippines resided at Best Western Plus Hotel Hong Kong, while the man who traveled from Tanzania stayed at Ramada Hong Kong Harbour View.
A total of 66 cases have been reported from Aug 24 to Sept 6, all of which were imported, according to the CHP.