By Daisy CL Mandap
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| CE Lam says incentives may be given to those who get vaccinated |
A Hong Kong health expert has called on the government to
introduce so-called “vaccine passports” to popular destinations like Japan,
South Korea and Taiwan as an incentive to get more people to get Covid-19 jabs.
Infectious disease expert Dr Ho Pak-leung from the University of Hong Kong made the call after Chief
Executive Carrie Lam announced that the government was looking at giving out
incentives to those who opt for vaccination.
Mrs Lam said among those being considered were exemptions to
certain travel and social distancing restrictions for those who have received
their two vaccine doses.
The call came as 13 new Covid-19 cases were reported today,
Mar 19. Three of them were imported, and included a newly arrived Filipina
domestic worker who tested positive at the airport and was found to have the
more infectious N501Y variant.
The two others were Indonesian domestic workers, one of whom
also tested positive at the airport, and the other, on her 12th day
in hotel quarantine.
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| Ho says a vaccine passport could encourage more residents to get the jab |
Speaking in a radio interview, Ho said the government should
reach out to these travel destinations and explore whether they could mutually agree
on giving quarantine exemption to travelers who have been vaccinated in their
respective territories.
He said the issuance of the vaccine passport or certificate
will encourage more Hongkongers to get vaccinated, while easing travel between
the city and the two destinations.
“Travelers could be considered to have enough immunity
against the coronavirus two weeks after they get two doses of the vaccine,” he
said.
As a safety precaution, Ho said Hong
Kong could still require the travelers to undergo testing for
Covid when they return from their holiday.
The same call was issued by Jason Wong, chairman of the Travel
Industry Council, who said that the possibility of unrestricted traveling would
make more local people go for inoculation.
“Most Hong Kong people would love to
fly again. With those vaccine certificates, or vaccine passports, perhaps it
might help to regain the confidence of those countries to welcome our travelers
again,” Wong said.
European governments have disclosed a similar plan of issuing a certificate
to their residents who have either been vaccinated or were recently recovered
from Covid-19, that will allow them to travel freely within the EU.
In an address to the Legislative Council Wednesday, the Chief
Executive bemoaned that not enough people in Hong Kong
are taking up the offer for a free Covid-19 vaccine.
She said public cooperation was important in achieving the
administration’s target of zero infections.
“If we require people to go for compulsory testing they won’t do it,
and now we encourage people to take the vaccines, people don’t do that,” she
said.
Lam suggested that a higher take-up rate for the vaccine could become
a pre-requisite for relaxing social distancing measures while those who get
vaccinated could be allowed to cross the border with ease.
Reports of seven people dying after receiving the China-made Sinovac
vaccine have led to mounting public concern over safety, despite experts
dismissing any link between the deaths and the jabs.
Since the adverse reports linked to Sinovac, the take-up rate for its
vaccine had dropped to just about 80%, while for BioNTech, it has been well
over 90%.
Still, well over 20,000 people are still getting the jabs on a daily
basis. On Thursday, 11,800 people received the Sinovac vaccine and about 10,800
the BioNTech one.
Around 276,600 people have now been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Hong Kong, with about 201,500 receiving their first dose
of the Sinovac jab, while about 75,100 taking the US-German vaccine,
Pfizer/BioNTech.
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| Chuang says the number of unlinked cases continues to be cause for concern |
Meanwhile, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection
said that of the 10 local cases today, six were linked to previous cases,
including 3 from the Ursus Fitness cluster.
A total of 138 cases have now been traced to the gym outbreak, and
Chuang said the new ones are coming from quarantine centres, meaning there may
no longer threats of a silent transmission from that cluster.
One of the unlinked cases is that of a 23-year-old man who tested
negative way back in February, while he was under quarantine after four of his
family members were found infected.
Chuang said they are still studying whether this is a case of new
infection or if the man was infected previously but did not test positive
because his viral load was low.
Another untraceable case was that of a 62-year-old housewife in Lam
Tin who regularly visited a restaurant near her home. A neighbor she interacted
with in the eatery also tested preliminary positive for the virus.
The two other unlinked cases involved a 36-year-old man who works at
Dorset House at One Island East where two earlier infections linked to Ursus
were found. Another is a 71-year-old who works as a chef at a restaurant in
Tuen Mun.
About 10 preliminary positive cases were recorded.
Chuang said that despite the drop in cases, it may be too early to say the infection has been brought under control because there is still a high proportion of untraceable cases.
