A new round of outreach vaccination service special programme for residential care homes (RCHs) launched today, with medical teams visiting RCHs at least once a week to provide COVID-19 and seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) services.

The Government noted that the number of confirmed cases among RCH residents and staff members as well as that of hospitalisation cases of infected elderly have been rising recently.

For the past week from November 18 to 24 in particular, the number of RCHs which have reported cases within seven days has surged by more than 20% compared to that of the previous week.

The proportion of infected elderly RCH residents among hospitalisation cases has also grown by nearly 10% compared with that of the previous week, whereas the fourth dose vaccination rate of RCH residents at present is only around 11%.

In view of the recent volatile COVID-19 epidemic situation, as well as the impending winter surge of influenza, the Government launched a new round of special programme which will last for four weeks, with a view to reinforce the protection barrier for RCHs.

According to experts' recommendation, adult residents who have not been infected with COVID-19 should receive the fourth dose at least 90 days after receiving the third dose.

Under the special programme, the Government will provide a special allowance for the visiting registered medical practitioners and outreach medical teams to cover the additional manpower and transportation costs involved.

The previous round of the special programme was conducted from the end of July to the end of September.

Medical teams had conducted over 4,300 visits to RCHs altogether and administered more than 34,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to residents.

The first, second and third dose vaccination rates at RCHs have increased significantly from the original 93%, 87% and 40% to 95%, 93% and 78%.