Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) President Wilson Hon Wai said yesterday that the vaccination rate in residential care homes for the elderly and residential care homes for the disabled has reached 90 percent, while the vaccination rate of young children in creches stands at only 60 percent, urging parents of young children to have them vaccinated as soon as possible.
Hon made the remarks on the sidelines of yesterday’s coordination meeting at the Areia Preta Health Centre held by the bureau for various social service organisations to tackle the influenza threat, with 175 representatives from 140 social service organisations attending.
Hon said that even though he understood the various considerations of parents regarding the vaccination of their young children, he pointed out that young children are weakened once they are infected with a virus, especially as the Chinese New Year (CNY) will be close to the expected flu peak this year.
Hon said that yesterday’s meeting aimed to ensure the effective implementation of the government’s infection prevention measures at various institutions, adding that while masks are required for admission to residential care homes, there was no need for more stringent management measures in residential care homes yet, while plans needed to be drafted in the event of a mass infection.
Hon underlined that social service organisations are expected to step up training for their staff to enable them to fully understand the transmission channels, symptoms and precautionary measures of influenza, so as to ensure that they can properly guide their service users and staff to take proper personal precautions in their daily work.
At the same time, they should strictly enforce the official notification mechanism for infectious diseases, closely monitor the health conditions of service users and staff, promptly deal with any discomfort and implement infection control measures, Hon said.
As the risk of infectious disease transmission has increased due to the frequent activities of institutional visits and New Year visits of family members and friends in the run-up to and during the Chinese New Year holidays, Hon reminded all social service facilities to communicate with service users and their family members in advance on flu-related precautionary and control measures, and to gain their understanding so as to facilitate better implementation of the relevant work.
Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) President Wilson Hon Wai talks to reporters on the sidelines of yesterday’s coordination meeting held by IAS at the health centre building in Areia Preta. – Photo: Ginnie Liang
