First school has students get vaccinated at Community Vaccination Centre via group booking (with photos)

     About 20 students, parents, teachers and school staff from Fanling Government Primary School received a COVID-19 vaccine at the Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) at Lung Sum Avenue Sports Centre through group booking this afternoon (June 21). The Under Secretary for Education, Dr Choi Yuk-lin, also visited the CVC to view the administering of the COVID-19 vaccine to them. 
 
     Fanling Government Primary School is the first school to have students vaccinated at a CVC through group booking. The Civil Service Bureau (CSB) arranged transport between the school and the CVC for them.
 
     The Secretary for the Civil Service, Mr Patrick Nip, said he was pleased to learn that the vaccination arrangements went smoothly. "In accordance with expert advice, the Government lowered the minimum age for receiving the BioNTech vaccine from 16 to 12 on June 14. During my visits to some CVCs recently, I learned that many parents have made their own bookings at CVCs for their children to get vaccinated," he said.
 
     "In addition to schools making their own appointments for vaccination, the CSB also provides schools with two convenient channels for vaccination arrangements, namely providing group bookings at CVCs and transport from and to schools as well as outreach vaccination at schools.
 
     "The Government has received many enquiries from schools since the launch of the measure. We have been actively following up with schools so as to come up with appropriate arrangements for them as early as possible. I am grateful to schools for their responses and efforts to help enhance herd immunity in the community.
 
     "In light of the volatility of the epidemic over the past year, students in Hong Kong experienced class suspension, face-to-face class suspension and class resumption. However, normal school life and activities are yet to be fully resumed and many extracurricular activities have been suspended for a long period of time. Vaccination can protect oneself against the virus and will help resume a more normal school life. I hope that teachers, parents and students can actively support the vaccination programme by getting vaccinated as early as possible to protect themselves and their family," Mr Nip said.
 
     To facilitate vaccination of students, teachers and staff of schools and parents, schools can choose to reserve time slots at CVCs through group bookings. The Government will arrange to transport teachers and staff members of schools, students or parents between schools and CVCs. Should the schools have a certain number of teachers and staff, students and parents for vaccination and be able to provide suitable venues with cleaning arrangements, the Government can arrange for the outreach vaccination service at schools, which will be provided by the medical teams of the current CVC operators.