By Daisy CL Mandap
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| HK has pulled out all stops to reach a 70% vaccination rate by end of August |
A total of 3,220,600 Hong Kong residents have received either their first or both shots of a Covid-19 vaccine, latest statistics show. That’s just slightly less than half of the 6.5 million residents qualified to take the shots, or those aged 12 and above.
According to figures published late Sunday by the
Centre for Health Protection, the latest tally is broken down into 1,761,600 people (27%) having
had at least one dose of a vaccine, while 1,203,200 (18.5%) had completed the
inoculation process by having two doses.
With the daily uptake at a high 97% to 98% and daily inoculations averaging more than 40,000 in the past week, Hong Kong may yet achieve its target of vaccinating at least 70% of all its qualified residents by end of August, to attain so-called herd immunity.
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Hong Kong has set that date as target because it plans
to close all its community vaccination centers by then, leaving only public
hospitals and some accredited private doctors to dispense the jabs. This is
also when a big number of the 15 million doses it has procured for its
vaccination drive are due to expire.
Officials have pulled out all stops to boost the
vaccination rate before then. Apart from providing on-site inoculations at some
big companies, they have also arranged with some groups to get vaccinated
together.
The latest of such activities was led by Health
Secretary Sophia Chan, who witnessed the group vaccination of over 60 ethnic
minority residents when she visited the community vaccination centre at the
Education Bureau offices in Kowloon Tong on Jun 20.
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| Chan thanks ethnic minority residents who joined the group jab |
Chan praised those who took part in the exercise, saying they “not only protect themselves and their family members by getting vaccinated against Covid-19, but also contribute to the epidemic prevention and control work in Hong Kong.”
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But what appears as the government’s most effective
way of waging the vaccination drive was its appeal to business groups to help
by offering incentives to those who are able to complete two doses before Sept
1.
Businesses responded in a big way, offering huge
prizes in lucky draws where the main criterion is that participants should be
Hong Kong residents who have been fully inoculated by the target date.
The launch of the biggest such lotteries on Jun 16 where the grand prize is a $10.8 million flat appears to have pushed the right button, when 30,600 people booked appointments for their first jab. The day before, a record 32,700 residents made their bookings.
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Another mega draw sponsored by the Hong Kong Chamber
of Commerce the next day, where the top prizes are three brand new Mercedes
Benz C class cars, appears to have led to another vaccination frenzy.
Although the number of bookings dipped slightly to
26,600 on Jun 18, the total number of people who had their jabs rose to a
near-record daily high of 50,200.
The next day, Jun 19, a Saturday, saw a record rise in the number of vaccinations, at 51,500. The number of bookings was down slightly at 23,000.
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On Sunday, the number of bookings dropped slightly to 22,000 but still high enough to assure officials Hong Kong might be on track to hit their target of having about 4.5 million of its residents to have been vaccinated, with just 71 days to go.
If the new bookings remain steady at around 25,000 a day, that would mean an extra 1.8 million people having been jabbed by the end of August. Combined with the current overall figure of 3.2 million, this would result in about 5 million, or 77%, of all qualified residents being inoculated.
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