Chief Executive Carrie Lam today visited the Hong Kong University children community vaccination centre at Gleneagles Hospital Hong Kong to know more about the arrangements being made by parents and schools for children to receive COVID-19 vaccination there.

Accompanied by Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip, Mrs Lam was briefed by the university's Dean of Medicine Prof Gabriel Leung and the hospital's Chief Executive Officer Dr Kenneth Tsang on the centre's operation, including the special dilution procedure for the BioNTech vaccine for children.

She also spoke to medical personnel and other working staff, offering words of encouragement.

The Chief Executive expressed her gratitude to the experienced medical team of the university and the hospital for their care for the children, providing a comfortable and safe environment for vaccination.

She also thanked parents and school staff for responding to the Government's appeal by arranging vaccination for children at the centre.

Mrs Lam said that as of yesterday, more than 290,000 children aged three to 11 have received their first dose, representing a vaccination rate of 56.1%. About 230,000 children are yet to be vaccinated.

She appealed to parents to make arrangements for their young children to get vaccinated immediately in order to reduce their risk of serious illness or death in case of infection, while at the same time creating favourable conditions for students to return to school to have different learning activities.