The Government today (April 8) announced that persons aged 60 or above who have received three doses of the Sinovac vaccine or the BioNTech vaccine may receive the fourth vaccine dose at least three months after their last dose. Starting from today, all eligible persons can collect a same-day ticket to receive vaccination at Community Vaccination Centres (CVCs) or Hospital COVID-19 Vaccination Stations (HCVSs).
Members of the public are advised that persons who have recovered from COVID-19 who have received three vaccine doses before infection do not have to receive the fourth dose.
In addition, the booking system of the designated website of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme (www.covidvacine.gov.hk) will be enhanced to enable eligible persons to make appointments online for receiving the fourth dose for better protection starting from 8am on April 14 (Thursday).
All CVCs providing the Sinovac vaccine and those providing the BioNTech vaccine to persons aged 12 or above (excluding the CVC at the CUHK Medical Centre in Sha Tin and the Satellite CVC at Leighton Centre in Causeway Bay) as well as HCVSs distribute same-day tickets to elderly persons aged 60 or above for receiving vaccination.
The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (JSC) under the Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health, joined by the Chief Executive's expert advisory panel (EAP), published the updated consensus interim recommendations on April 7. As the majority of local fatal cases in the fifth wave of the COVID-19 epidemic have been persons aged 60 or above, the JSC-EAP thus recommended persons aged 60 or above to receive an additional dose (i.e. fourth dose) of either Comirnaty vaccine or CoronaVac vaccine at least three months after their last dose for better protection.
The updated consensus interim recommendations by the JSC under the CHP are available in the following press release: www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202204/07/P2022040700247.htm.
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