Campaign to boost vaccination starts

May 31, 2021

Chief Executive Carrie Lam:

We chose this slogan “It’s more than a Jab” (and) it has two meanings. One is, it’s more than a jab for yourself. (It's) to protect yourself and your family members which has been a slogan we have adopted for the past three months. 

It’s more than a jab because this is the lifeline of Hong Kong. It will make Hong Kong capable of getting out of this COVID-19 epidemic (situation). If we have a high vaccination rate, we will have a sufficient level of herd immunity. Then businesses could go back to normal and travel could be resumed with the Mainland and other parts of the world. So I hope that members of the public will realise that it’s not just taking two doses of vaccine, you are making a huge contribution to Hong Kong society.

It’s more than a jab in a very ordinary sense that apart from receiving the doses, you will or may have a chance of getting something back, whether it is an extra holiday provided by employers or a lucky draw with certain goodies and things like that or discount coupons in shopping malls or free tickets to theme parks and so on. So this is a very tangible way in order to overcome what we call vaccine hesitancy. I am sure that after this press conference, individual corporations and enterprises will have something to say to echo the Government’s campaign.

It is also for all of us, including our media friends, to help promote and join hands in this campaign, so that hopefully by the end of three months, we could reach a comfortable level of vaccination rate that will enable us to do what we want to do in returning to normality.

(To watch the full press conference with sign language interpretation, click here.)

The Government and different sectors in the community will roll out various measures and reward programmes to encourage people to receive COVID-19 vaccination under a campaign launched today.

The campaign aims to significantly raise the vaccination rate during the critical three-month period from now until the end of August.

Announcing the launch of Early Vaccination for All this afternoon, Chief Executive Carrie Lam noted that the most important way for Hong Kong to get through the epidemic is large-scale vaccination of the public to build an immune barrier for the entire community.

Mrs Lam said: “It’s more than a jab because this is the lifeline of Hong Kong. It will make Hong Kong capable of getting out of this COVID-19 epidemic (situation). If we have a high vaccination rate, we will have a sufficient level of herd immunity.

“Then businesses could go back to normal and travel could be resumed with the Mainland and other parts of the world. So I hope that members of the public will realise that it’s not just taking two doses of vaccine, you are making a huge contribution to Hong Kong society.”

Under the campaign, government employees will be entitled to a day of vaccination leave for each vaccination dose received, while social distancing restrictions will be relaxed for fully vaccinated diners.

The Chief Executive also said the Government welcomed incentives provided by the commercial sector to encourage citizens to get vaccinated.

“It’s more than a jab in a very ordinary sense that apart from receiving the doses, you will or may have a chance of getting something back, whether it is an extra holiday provided by employers or a lucky draw with certain goodies and things like that or discount coupons in shopping malls or free tickets to theme parks and so on.

“So this is a very tangible way in order to overcome what we call vaccine hesitancy.”

Later this week, people can save their vaccination records and QR codes in the LeaveHomeSafe mobile app version 2.0 and display their vaccination records for verification to the relevant premises that offer concessions to vaccinated clients, and iAM Smart iPhone users can save their QR codes in Apple Wallet when downloading their electronic vaccination records.

The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer will assist industries in developing suitable applications and systems for scanning vaccination records to ensure their authenticity to enable the customers to participate in different promotions.

“It is also for all of us, including our media friends, to help promote and join hands in this campaign, so that hopefully by the end of three months, we could reach a comfortable level of vaccination rate that will enable us to do what we want to do in returning to normality,” Mrs Lam added.