Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung today visited the vaccination centres at Hong Kong Children’s Hospital and at MTR Tsing Yi Station, and urged parents to bring their children to get a COVID-19 jab.

Starting from today, the two centres concurrently provide vaccination services using the Sinovac and BioNTech vaccines.

Mrs Yeung said: “Parents must not overlook the serious symptoms that the coronavirus can cause on their children, including encephalitis. Only by receiving vaccination can it help people minimise their risks of falling seriously ill, death or severe after-effects should they get infected.

“We have only begun the vaccination programme for children, or for infants aged six months to three years old, for less than two weeks. Right now, we have more than 3,000 infants in this age bracket who have got vaccinated. I hope the vaccination pace will quicken.”

Apart from the children’s hospital and MTR Tsing Yi Station, the Department of Health’s maternal and child health centres also started providing the Sinovac vaccination service today. Mrs Yeung advised that parents could arrange for their young children to get vaccinated and receive the centres’ services in one go.

Hong Kong Children’s Hospital administers the Sinovac vaccine for children aged six months to 17 years old, while those aged five to 11 can opt for the BioNTech vaccine there.

Meanwhile, the MTR Tsing Yi Station administers the Sinovac vaccine to people aged six months or above, and the BioNTech vaccine to those 12 years old or above.

Partitions and signage have been placed at the two venues for identification of the vaccination zones for the two types of vaccine, the Government added.