The scientific committees under the Centre for Health Protection and the Chief Executive's expert advisory panel have suggested that care home residents who have completed four COVID-19 jab doses may receive an additional dose of the bivalent vaccine for better protection.

The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on Emerging & Zoonotic Diseases together with the expert advisory panel convened a meeting today.

In view of the arrival of the BioNTech bivalent vaccine in Hong Kong, recent increasing activities of COVID-19 in the community and residential care homes as well as the anticipated winter surge, the scientific committees and the expert advisory panel discussed the use of the bivalent vaccine and issued their consensus interim recommendations.

The experts called for vaccination comprising a total of four doses for eligible residents of elderly care homes and residential care homes for disabled people as soon as feasible in order to reduce the risk of death and severe disease.

Taking into account overseas practices and considering that the BioNTech bivalent vaccine matched with the circulating Omicron strain in Hong Kong, the experts advised that care home residents who have completed four doses, or three doses with previous COVID-19 infection, may receive an additional dose of bivalent vaccine for better protection, while they may also choose the ancestral strain vaccine under informed consent.

In addition, the bivalent vaccine can be used as another choice for the third and the fourth vaccine dose.

Meanwhile, noting that some adults have received four doses of vaccines or three doses with prior infection, with more than half a year passed, the experts considered that such people may receive an additional dose six months after their last dose or recovery for personal protection under informed consent.

A similar approach also applies to immunocompromised people aged 18 or above, with a shortened time interval of three months, the experts added.