Good timing for hybrid immunity push, says health expert

A health expert said on Monday that now is the time to promote hybrid immunity in Hong Kong, in which people acquire antibodies from both prior infection and vaccination.

Speaking on a radio program this morning, microbiologist Ho Pak-leung said people who were infected during the city’s fifth wave of Covid outbreak at the start of the year had minimum chances of reinfection within three to six months.

He also noted that people are less likely to develop severe symptoms if they did catch Covid a second time.

Government Covid advisors Yuen Kwok-yung and Ivan Hung Fan-ngai had also proposed similar ideas earlier, calling on authorities to relax the city’s Covid curbs allowing citizens to attain hybrid immunity through infection and vaccination.

Health officials on Sunday logged 3,486 coronavirus infections, of which 173 were imported. Four Covid-related deaths were also reported - they were aged 71 to 94 - taking the total count to 9,224.

Ho stressed Hong Kong has to seize the time to boost the city's vaccination rate, as it is the best and the most sustainable way to alleviate the outbreaks.

Local health experts had previously suggested that Hong Kong has entered into an endemic phase, with up to four million people having been infected with Omicron BA.2. 

It was said that the Omicron BA.2 offers a very good cross-protection against BA.4 and BA.5, in which the city is in a very good position to open up and to move on to endemic.

Meanwhile, Ho also called on health authorities to call off their sewage testing exercise and overnight lockdowns.

He said many Covid patients are currently undergoing home quarantine, and that it is inevitable for the sewage samples from many of the buildings to return positive results for the coronavirus.