Territory-wide Home Vaccination Service commences for persons with special needs to receive COVID-19 vaccination (with photos/video)
26.4.2022

Following the launch of the registration service for door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination last week, the Civil Service Bureau commenced the territory-wide Home Vaccination Service today (April 26) after consolidating the information of eligible persons and matching them to medical teams. The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, together with the Legislative Council member for the medical and health services functional constituency, Dr David Lam, visited Siu Sai Wan Estate today to view the door-to-door vaccination process for elderly persons. Medical Conscience, which Dr Lam belongs to, is also among the outreach medical teams in the Home Vaccination Service. After the expansion of the service across Hong Kong, three elderly persons aged 75 to 94 were the first beneficiaries to have received vaccination through the door-to-door service. They had not received any COVID-19 vaccine earlier. Two of them were infected with COVID-19 in early March, and they received vaccination one month after their recovery. The vaccination process, from a simple briefing on vaccination to the printing of a vaccination record, went very smoothly. There were also volunteers on-site to assist. Mr Nip said, "Since the launch of registration a week ago, as of last night, about 7 900 persons had registered for the door-to-door vaccination service. We are very grateful for the support from the public, but we believe that there are still some people with special needs adopting a wait-and-see attitude, who we hope will grasp the opportunity and register as early as possible. There are 20 teams of staff from various medical organisations and groups today providing door-to-door vaccination in Eastern District. We will launch the door-to-door vaccination service in Sai Kung District on Thursday (April 28) and will progressively increase the daily number of outreach teams to speed up the progress of vaccination. We are also very grateful to the Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link and the Hong Kong Volunteers Against Coronavirus for sending volunteers to assist the medical teams in the door-to-door vaccination service." He added, "During the epidemic, a lot of unvaccinated elderly persons have become seriously ill or even passed away after infection. According to the provisional data of the reported death cases in the fifth wave of the epidemic, the number of reported deaths of unvaccinated persons aged 70 or above has reached 5 848, accounting for about 65 per cent of the total number of deaths. It is the people of this age group that the Home Vaccination Service hopes to protect and assist in getting vaccinated. Although the recent epidemic situation has been subsiding, we must not let our guard down. On the contrary, elderly persons who are not vaccinated should take this opportunity to receive COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible and receive the second, third and even the fourth dose on time." Unvaccinated elderly persons aged 70 or above and persons with impaired mobility due to illness or physical disability should grasp this opportunity to register for the free door-to-door Sinovac vaccination service via the Home Vaccination Service website ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/hv/ ) or the enquiry hotline on 5688 5234 (operating from 9am to 8pm daily). The service is being rolled out by district, with four or five districts being served each week. Members of the public can receive COVID-19 vaccination via the Home Vaccination Service free of charge. The outreach teams will contact the applicants before they arrive and staff members will wear a green uniform shirt while on duty for easy identification. In case of doubt, persons can call the enquiry hotline. The designated website for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme ( www.covidvaccine.gov.hk/en/programme ) provides the latest information including details on vaccination venues, reservation and enquiry hotlines. For members of the public who have elderly family members who they can take to a nearby vaccination venue, they are advised to make reservations or collect same-day tickets for vaccination immediately so that the elderly persons can receive vaccine protection as early as possible.