Hong Kong’s civil servants, teachers and healthcare workers must get vaccinated against the coronavirus or pay for regular testing, the city’s leader announced on Monday, as her administration adopted a push into mandatory inoculations.
The finance hub is one of the few places in the world to have secured ample supplies of the coronavirus vaccine, but public take up has been lacklustre.
After six months, only 36 percent of the city’s 7.5 million residents are fully vaccinated with two jabs while 48 percent have received one dose.
But infections have remained low as Hong Kong has been all but closed to non-residents for most of the last 18 months and all arrivals must undergo lengthy quarantine in designated hotels.
On Monday, chief executive Carrie Lam announced a new push to raise the city’s vaccination rate by making jabs compulsory for four sectors: civil servants, healthcare workers, care home staff and school teachers.
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