As the financial hub grapples with a rise in coronavirus infections, Hong Kong will close kindergartens and primary schools and begin providing COVID-19 vaccines to children as young as five years old, the city’s governor announced on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News claimed that certain travellers will be barred from travelling through Hong Kong for a month, citing unnamed sources familiar with the situation.
It comes after the city has witnessed an increase in cases after three months of no local coronavirus infections at the end of last year.
To prevent transmissions of the fast-spreading Omicron variant, Chief Executive Carrie Lam told reporters in a weekly media conference that kindergartens and primary schools must suspend face-to-face courses from Friday until after the Lunar New Year at the beginning of February.
After months of online instruction, most schools resumed in-person classes late last year.
The Sinovac vaccine, which is made in China, will be available to children over the age of five, according to Lam. The other vaccine offered in Hong Kong, developed by BioNTech of Germany, has been approved for children aged 12 and up.
“I am hopeful and certain that we will be able to overcome the problem,” Lam stated.
Separately, Bloomberg News reported that Hong Kong’s international airport would bar travellers from 150 high-risk locations from January15 to February 14, citing anonymous sources.
According to the source, the restriction will not apply to diplomats, government officials, athletes or personnel participating in the Winter Olympics, which begin on February 4 in Beijing.
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