Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for the Civil Service, Mrs Ingrid Yeung, at a media session after viewing the readiness of the Lai Chi Kok Park Community Vaccination Station this morning (September 29):

Reporter: About the flu vaccine and also the COVID vaccine. So, why just allow people to receive the flu and COVID vaccines together but not only the flu vaccine? The Government has updated the "LeaveHomeSafe" app allowing parents to add children's vaccine pass into it. So, do you expect this new measure can improve the vaccination rate? How much do you think it is going to increase?

Secretary for the Civil Service: For our COVID-19 Community Vaccination Centres, they were in the first place designed for getting the COVID-19 vaccines done. That's why we are allowing both the COVID-19 and the flu vaccines to be done together in these venues. But, for those who would just like to have the flu vaccines, we had many outlets for delivering the flu vaccine in past years. In this year, it's the same and we have not reduced the outlets. So, they will have plenty of venues to go to have their flu vaccine done. So, that's why we prefer to reserve our COVID-19 Community Vaccination Centres for COVID-19 vaccines plus flu vaccines (for residents aged 50 or above) or just COVID-19 vaccines alone, but not just for flu vaccines, in case the comers crowd out those who would really like to have the COVID-19 vaccine. 

     For the "LeaveHomeSafe" app, being able to add a companion to it will definitely provide greater convenience for parents who are bringing young children with them together. We believe that this will provide parents, or provide carers, with greater convenience. But, as I said just now, the vaccination situation of children from 3 years to 11 years has been improving and has been quite good. So, we believe it won't be a big incentive itself but it will provide a lot of convenience for parents.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)

Ends/Thursday, September 29, 2022
Issued at HKT 17:41

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