Coronavirus: Hong Kong parents urged to get young children inoculated ahead of vaccine pass scheme expansion

Civil service chief Ingrid Yeung calls on parents to abandon their vaccine hesitancy

About 50,000 unvaccinated children are set to be barred from entering restaurants and other premises covered by the scheme

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Officials have urged parents to ensure their children are vaccinated against Covid-19. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 2:34pm, 29 Sep 2022Updated: 11:43pm, 29 Sep 2022

The minister in charge of Hong Kong’s Covid-19 inoculation drive has made an appeal for young children to receive shots ahead of the vaccine pass scheme’s expansion on Friday to cover those aged five to 11 years, urging parents not to worry about “isolated” cases of adverse reactions.

With about 50,000 unvaccinated children set to be barred from entering restaurants and other premises covered by the scheme, Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung Ho Poi-yan on Thursday called on parents to abandon their vaccine hesitancy.

“I hope parents will not risk the health of their children,” Yeung said after opening the temporary inoculation centre at Lai Chi Kok Park. “As I have repeatedly said, [infected] children will be suffering a lot of physical and psychological pain, parents will also be very worried, and ‘long Covid’ will also affect the children in a lot of ways.”

A temporary vaccination centre has been set up in Lai Chi Kok Park. Photo: May Tse

Yeung touted the Lai Chi Kok centre, which has been made with a converted container, as an example of using innovation to make access easier and boost uptake, adding more sites would be opened in due course, including one at Wong Tai Sin Plaza.