Elderly encouraged to get vaccinated to avoid risks

Major cities including Shanghai and Beijing have been taking steps to increase the COVID-19 vaccination rate among residents aged 60 and above, as they are most likely to develop severe cases of the disease or even death due to underlying conditions.

In Shanghai, while the city is still fighting its worst COVID-19 outbreak in two years, community health centers, temporary vaccination sites and mobile vaccination vehicles are providing priority vaccination for the elderly living in suburban areas with low COVID-19 exposure risks.

The Shihua Community Health Center in Jinshan district was among the first to see vaccinations resume.

"We have set up a green channel for seniors to get vaccinated in the center. Each vaccination takes around five minutes," said Mo Xuefeng, deputy director of the health center.

For those who cannot make it to the center, the local health authorities have established temporary vaccination sites in residential areas.

According to the Jinshan district health commission, medical professionals administered 7,598 COVID-19 vaccine shots in the district between April 19 and 25.

In Nanqiao town, Fengxian district, more than 1,000 residents aged 60 and above have received vaccine shots since April 19. Here, three shuttle buses have been mobilized to transport seniors from their homes to community health centers for vaccination.

Mobile vaccination sites have also been set up within communities that are under lockdown. To date, more than 60 percent of residents aged 60 and above in Fengxian district have been vaccinated.

Vaccination of senior citizens has also resumed in Chongming district and Sijing town in Songjiang district.

Shanghai has reported more than 400,000 COVID-19 infections during the current outbreak, which started in early March. Close to 20 percent of those infected have been aged 60 and above, while 2 percent have been aged 80 and above, Sun Xiaodong, deputy head of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said on April 20.

The vaccination rate of people aged 60 and above in Shanghai currently stands at just 62 percent, much lower than the national average of 80.6 percent. The percentage of those who had received their booster shot is also much lower－38 percent in Shanghai compared with the national average of around 57 percent.

Sun explained that both domestic and foreign studies have shown that the effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing severe, critical and fatal outcomes was obvious among seniors who had been fully vaccinated and among those who've had a booster shot, which stands at over 70 and 90 percent respectively.

The city health commission has reminded elderly residents with no existing health conditions to get fully vaccinated once the lockdown of their compounds is lifted as doing so will significantly reduce the risk of them developing severe illness or dying should they become infected with the virus.

Beijing, which has registered an outbreak over the past days, is also urging the city's senior residents to get vaccinated.

The city's Haidian district reported giving 546 shots of vaccine to seniors on Sunday, and several locations vaccinated people who were aged 90 or above.

In a community in Haidian's Sijiqing town, seniors who get their shots are eligible for a 500 yuan ($76) shopping coupon and antivirus materials such as disinfection sprays. Around 97 seniors in Sijiqing got shots on Sunday.

In another community in Haidian, two seniors, aged 100 and 90, got their first shots with the help of community workers.

According to the Beijing government, more than 3.43 million residents aged 60 and above had received a vaccination shot as of April 13, accounting for 80 percent of the group.