HONG KONG - The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government announced Wednesday that the overall vaccination rate for the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines at residential care homes for the elderly and disabled persons has reached 84 percent.

The HKSAR government launched the third stage of outreach vaccination service on April 15 and set the target of providing outreach vaccination service to unvaccinated RCH residents who have recovered from COVID-19, and those who are due to receive the next vaccine dose after their first or second dose by Tuesday.

With efforts of various parties, the overall first-dose vaccination rate at RCHs based on the total number of RCH residents has risen from 55 percent in mid-March to 84 percent as of Tuesday, while the overall vaccination rates for the second and third doses at RCHs are 56 percent and 14 percent respectively.

Patrick Nip, secretary for the civil service of the HKSAR government, said that under the COVID-19 pandemic, the elderly and RCH residents are the most vulnerable groups and are most in need of the protection conferred by the vaccines, urging the public to understand the risk of death faced by the elderly after being infected with COVID-19 and the efficacy of vaccines.

A total of 16 outreach teams have been set up by the HKSAR government to provide health assessments and vaccination to residents of RCHs for the elderly and disabled persons as early as possible, involving a total of over 700 healthcare personnel.

On Wednesday, Hong Kong registered 131 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 149 additional cases through self-reported antigen rapid tests, official data showed.