Hong Kong government officials decided to expand the vaccination programme to young pupils aged between 12-15 from 11 June. It is estimated that around 240,000 children will benefit from this new policy. It was also reported that the government may consider allowing schools to resume face-to-face classes on a full-day basis should the vaccination rate reaches to 70% or 80%.
 

Currently, residents aged 16 or above have two vaccine options - Sinovac (China) and BioNTech (German/US) to choose form, but only the latter one will be available for young students from Year 8 to Year 11.

Since the vaccination programme rolled out in late February, 1.22 million people were fully vaccinated, accounting for 17.9% of population. It is far lower than the UK by 39.4% according to the figures on both governments’ latest reports.

Source: Age limit for BioNTech vaccine lowered to 12, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK)

Comments by Karen Hsu, Education Services Manager for Hong Kong

The number of local infection cases have been decreasing significantly over the past month. There were also several times that Hong Kong had 0 local cases in consecutive days. The government is now keen to enable schools to return to normality, provided a significant percentage of pupils in the school had been vaccinated, as currently most local schools can only offer half-day classes for students.

With the new measure in place, local parents now have more options and may feel more comfortable when sending their children to study abroad because they are fully vaccinated. It is noteworthy for UK institutions and schools to be aware of this new policy, as well as provide relevant measures and support accordingly.