Explainer | Should Hong Kong start rolling out fourth doses of Covid-19 vaccine en masse, or is 3 the magic number?
- Several experts say there is no pressing need to begin offering fourth doses, as three offer adequate protection
- But others say fourth shots can better protect vulnerable seniors, and will eventually be inevitable for everyone once antibodies from the third dose begin to fade
Professor Lau Yu-lung, who chairs the government’s Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases, made the suggestion on Sunday, saying the elderly had lower immunity to the virus than younger residents, and an additional dose would offer them better protection.
Lau’s committee currently only recommends a fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccine for immunocompromised patients aged 12 and up.
As of Monday, some 6.07 million people, or more than 90 per cent of the city’s eligible population, had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine. Around 1.95 million people have received a third dose.
However, the vaccination rate among elderly residents has remained relatively low, with only about 51 per cent of those aged 80 and up having received one dose, and just 31 per cent having taken two. Only 1 per cent of the age group has had a third dose.
According to health authorities, more than 90 per cent of those who have died in the surging fifth wave of infections were either unvaccinated, or had only received one dose. The death rate among those aged 80 or older who were not fully vaccinated was 8.61 per cent, around 5.5 times that of people in the same age group who had at least two jabs.