HK begins registrations for mass inoculation program

Hong Kong started online registrations for the city's COVID-19 vaccination program on Tuesday, with 70,000 residents registering for Sinovac vaccines as of 4 pm. The vaccination program is to begin on Friday.

Those who had signed up so far are from the five prioritized groups including frontline health workers, elderly people aged 60 and above, workers and residents of care homes, people providing essential public services, and those engaged in cross-boundary transport services.

Slots for inoculation from Feb 26 to March 11 had been fully booked, 16 hours after registration was opened to the public.

Tang Ka-piu, a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, said the Sinovac vaccine is very popular with the community. His association helps the elderly to book vaccination appointments online. He said some of his colleagues had to wait from 30 minutes to an hour to access the online booking system.

Peter Lee Ka-keung, a senior nursing official with Hong Kong's Department of Health, said he has confidence in the domestic-developed Sinovac vaccine. Lee was among the 200 people to receive the vaccination in advance at one of the Community Vaccination Centers in the Hong Kong Central Library on Tuesday morning. He called on the public to "step forward" to get vaccinated and contribute to epidemic control.

Also among the first to get inoculated is Peter Clemmow, general manager at Cathay Pacific Airways. He said he felt he had responsibility to get vaccinated and was proud to support the community. Clemmow also said he looked forward to Hong Kong resuming connection to other parts of the world.

There are four channels in which members of the public can receive vaccinations. The public can receive vaccinations at 29 CVCs in 18 districts across the city, more than 1,500 private clinics, and 18 general outpatient clinics under the Hospital Authority. Outreach teams will also go to residential care homes for the elderly and homes for persons with disabilities to provide on-site vaccinations.

Healthcare workers will provide vaccination services to the public at the CVCs. According to Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip Takkuen, five CVCs will provide the Sinovac vaccines, while the remaining CVCs will provide the Fosun Pharma-BioNTech vaccines, which will arrive in Hong Kong in the next one or two days.

Hong Kong reported 12 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, including 11 local transmissions.