HKSAR gov't urges higher vaccination of students as schools to reopen after Easter

HONG KONG, March 23 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government is urging cooperation on promoting vaccination among students as schools with a high inoculation rate are expected to reopen after the Easter holidays, Chief Executive of the HKSAR Carrie Lam said on Wednesday.

After the holidays, face-to-face classes may be fully resumed at schools whose staff and 90 percent of students have taken at least two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Lam told a press conference.

The aim is for schools to gradually resume classes in batches after the Easter break, which could be as early as April 19, she said.

The current rates of students aged 12 to 17 years who have received their first and second doses of vaccine are 95 percent and 66 percent, respectively, while students aged three to 11 years have a first-dose rate of 58 percent and a second-dose rate of only 11 percent due to the late start of the program, Lam said.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong registered 4,250 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 7,990 additional positive cases through self-reported rapid antigen tests, official data showed.