Hong Kong announces compulsory COVID-19 vaccines for key sectors

Hong Kong announces compulsory COVID-19 vaccines for key sectors

Hong Kong civil servants, teachers and สล็อตxo healthcare workers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 or pay for regular testing, the city's leader announced on Monday (Aug 2), as her administration adopted a push into mandatory inoculations.

The finance hub is one of the few places in the world to have secured ample supplies of coronavirus vaccines, but public take-up has been lacklustre.

After six months, only 36 per cent of the city's 7.5 million residents are fully vaccinated with two jabs while 48 per cent have received one dose.

But infections have remained low as Hong Kong has been all but closed to non-residents for most of the last 18 months, and all arrivals must undergo a lengthy quarantine in designated hotels.

On Monday, chief executive Carrie Lam announced a new push to raise the city's vaccination rate by making jabs compulsory for four sectors: Civil servants, healthcare workers, care home staff and school teachers.

Vaccination rates vary between those sectors - from 70 per cent among civil servants to just 47 per cent among teachers.

"There is much room for improvement," Lam said.

Those who refuse vaccinations will have to be tested twice a week and pay for the cost out of their own pockets unless they have a valid medical reason not to be inoculated.

"If people are refusing to get vaccinated for reasons that are not health-related, I don't think a responsible government should tolerate that," Lam said.

The city's virus measures have kept infections down with around 12,000 cases and 200 deaths. No local infections have been recorded for more than 50 days.