Get Jabbed or Risk Serious Covid Infection, Says Expert

Yuen warns everyone needs to get vaccinated against Covid-19

Infectious disease expert Dr Yuen Kwok-yung believes some 2.5 million people have been infected with Covid-19 since the fifth wave began in late December and projects the caseload will drop to under 1,000 a day in the coming weeks.

The government advisor on the pandemic warned "eradication of the coronavirus will not happen," and urged those who still hadn't gotten jabbed to do so. 

Yuen even went so far as to suggest elderly people should get the German-made BioNTech vaccine rather than the Chinese-made Sinovac one, as the former is more effective at neutralising the Omicron variant, though he agreed everyone should have the freedom to choose which jab to take.

Most vulnerable are elderly not yet jabbed

Finally a medical expert has come out to recommend one over the other, even though the government says both are effective...

He also said the city needs a 95 percent vaccination rate in order to prepare for the next wave of infections.

"The eradication of the coronavirus will not happen. The virus will be with us, and there may be another mutant in the future," Yuen said, noting the city's so-called vaccine pass should also be expanded to cover public transport.

Now it is used to get into shopping malls, restaurants, hotels and hair salons.

While Yuen even called for the easing of restrictions in restaurants and having places like gyms reopened, and flights to Hong Kong resumed, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor would not entertain these suggestions, hinting the city needs to reach "dynamic zero-Covid"...

Who knows? Maybe she will change her mind tomorrow on Monday when she will release the outcome of the "interim review" of social-distancing measures and border control measures.

Yuen suggests vaccine passport for public transit

Today the number of cases dropped further to 14,145, though the death toll is still high at 205, and another 41 backlogged. Hong Kong now has a total of 5,896 deaths since the start of the pandemic, the vast majority of them in the fifth wave.

The authorities cannot vaccinate the elderly fast enough, and on top of it Lam refuses to mandate all seniors must be jabbed... 

And with that kind of decision, it's going to take a while for the fifth wave to be under control...