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中 華 人 民 共 和 國 香 港 特 別 行 政 區 政 府 總 部 教 育 局
Education BureauGovernment Secretariat, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region The People’s Republic of China
本局檔號 Our Ref : EDB(SDCT)3/PRO/10/1/1 電話 Telephone :
來函檔號 Your Ref. : 傳真 Fax Line :
24 January 2022
To: Supervisors / Principals of all Secondary Schools, Primary Schools, Special Schools, Schools offering Non-Local Curriculum, Kindergartens and Kindergarten-cum-Child Care Centres
Dear Supervisor / Principal,
COVID-19 Vaccination Programme
Vaccination Arrangements for Students Aged 5 to 17
The Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and the Scientific Committee on Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases under the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health (DH), joined by the Chief Executive’s expert advisory panel, announced updated consensus interim recommendations on 17 January 2022. The Government issued a letter to schools on 20 January 2022, setting out the updated arrangements for students aged 5 to 17 to receive Sinovac vaccine and BioNTech vaccine.
(https://edb.gov.hk/en/sch-admin/admin/about-sch/diseases-prevention/early- vaccination.html). In gist, children aged 5 to 11 may receive Sinovac vaccine starting from 21 January 2022 or BioNTech vaccine at Children Community Vaccination Centre (CCVC) starting from 16 February 2022.
Group Vaccination for Students Arranged by Schools
To facilitate vaccination of students through arrangements made by schools, schools (including primary and secondary schools, kindergartens and kindergarten-cum-child care centres (to be referred to as ‘KGs’ thereafter) can arrange vaccination via the following means:
(i) Vaccination Subsidy Scheme (VSS) School Outreach (i.e. doctors providing outreach on-campus vaccination service) (only applicable to primary schools and KGs)
Sinovac vaccine (aged 5 or above)
(ii) Community Vaccination Centre (CVC) through group bookings made by schools
Sinovac vaccine (aged 5 or above) BioNTech vaccine (aged 12 or above) (iii) Designated Student Health Service
Centre of the DH through group bookings made by schools (not applicable to KGs)
Sinovac vaccine
(secondary and primary students aged 5 or above)
(iv) School Outreach by COVID-19 Mobile Vaccination Station
Sinovac vaccine (aged 5 or above) BioNTech vaccine (aged 12 or above) (v) Vaccination at CCVC through group
bookings made by schools
BioNTech vaccine (aged 5 to 11)
For detailed arrangements of options (ii) to (v), please refer to the relevant information issued by the Civil Service Bureau (https://edb.gov.hk/en/sch- admin/admin/about-sch/diseases-prevention/early-vaccination.html). For option (i) above, that is, VSS School Outreach (i.e. doctors providing outreach on- campus vaccination service), a school may liaise with the doctor providing VSS School Outreach service through the EDB to arrange its students to receive Sinovac vaccine. There should be at least 150 participants for each outreach and the details are as follows:
a. Schools can plan the vaccination date(s) in advance. If the number of participants is 150 or above, schools can submit an application to the EDB at least 14 days prior to the proposed vaccination date(s).
b. Schools should adequately communicate with their stakeholders, including teachers and school staff, students, parents/guardians, estimate the approximate number of participants to receive the vaccination according to the established school-based mechanism.
Schools can arrange parents/guardians to have the consent forms
properly signed in advance.
(https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/sch-admin/admin/about- sch/diseases-prevention/edb_20220124_eng_consent.pdf).
Schools should keep the consent forms and submit them to the VSS doctors on the day of vaccination. For schools having less than 150 participants to receive Sinovac vaccine, we encourage them to consider option (ii) to (iii) above.
c. After receiving the consent forms and information of the participants, schools should complete Annex 1 and submit them to the respective School Development Sections/ Joint Office for Kindergartens and Child Care Centres by email to facilitate our matching of doctors joining the outreach service for vaccination at schools.
d. In general, the EDB will inform the matching results of the assigned doctors within 4 working days after receiving the schools’ application. Schools can approach the doctors concerned direct to discuss the detailed arrangements of the outreach vaccination.
e. Schools should assist in setting up part of the vaccination venue and provide cleaning services. For venue setup and other preparatory work before vaccination, schools can make reference to the “COVID-19 Vaccination Programme – Vaccination Subsidy Scheme (VSS) School Outreach Guide for Primary Schools, Kindergartens, Kindergarten-cum-Child Care Centres and Child Care Centre” issued by the DH (https://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/en/sch-admin/admin/about- sch/diseases-prevention/edb_20220124_eng_guide.pdf).
f. Upon completion of the school outreach, schools should complete Annex 2 and return to the respective School Development Sections/ Joint Office for Kindergartens and Child Care Centres within 5 working days for tallying of information.
Parents and guardians may also reserve booking of COVID-19
vaccination for their children on their own
(https://booking.covidvaccine.gov.hk/forms/index.jsp). We welcome teachers and school staff, parents and guardians to get vaccinated together with students on the vaccination days. The vaccination arrangements for special schools will be announced separately.
Arrangements for Whole-Day Face-to-Face Classes
As the age limit to receive vaccine has been lowered to children aged 5 to
11, making reference to the current arrangements for secondary schools, the EDB updates the arrangements for whole-day face-to-face classes and related activities for the 2021/22 school year for primary schools. The details are as follows:
If schools can achieve the following vaccination rate, the EDB will, taking into consideration the actual circumstances of the schools, allow the students of such schools to resume whole-day face-to-face classes:
(i) if 70% or more of the teachers and school staff (including teaching and non-teaching staff) directly employed by the school have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine for more than 14 days; and (ii) 70% or more of the students in the whole school have received one
of the following vaccines for more than 14 days:
Age of Students
BioNTech (Comirnaty) Vaccine
Sinovac Vaccine
5 to 17 years 1 dose 2 doses
If schools cannot achieve the above requirements for whole school to resume whole-day face-to-face classes, but the number of such students in an individual class level can meet the above requirements, we can also allow the schools concerned to arrange whole-day face-to-face classes and other activities for students in that particular class level.
For a school having fulfilled the above requirements and would like to arrange the whole school or students of an individual class level for whole-day face-to-face classes, after obtaining the endorsement of the Incorporated Management Committee /School Management Committee, the school should duly complete the Annex 3 and notify the respective school development section of the EDB of the class resumption arrangements at least 4 working days before the target commencement date. The EDB will, in general, issue the reply slip within 2 working days. The school should inform parents, students and related stakeholders of its plan as early as possible. The school should keep the vaccination record of teachers and school staff properly. In principle, special schools and schools offering non-local curriculum should make reference to the arrangements of ordinary school and the situation of schools and the needs of students will be taken into account in deciding the detailed arrangements; while the abovementioned whole-day class arrangements are not applicable to Private Schools offering Non-Formal Curriculum.
Vaccination is a vital step in the fight against the virus and the epidemic.
We urge teachers and school staff, students and parents to get vaccinated as early as possible. The EDB will continue to closely monitor the epidemic development, update the schooling and related arrangements and inform
stakeholders in a timely manner. For enquiries, please contact your respective Senior School Development Officers or Senior Service Officers.
Yours sincerely,
(Dr Verena LAU) for Secretary for Education
