HONG KONG: Hong Kong will offer civil servants who get vaccinated against COVID-19 a day off for each dose, the government said on Monday, as authorities struggle to boost a sluggish inoculation rate among the city’s 7.5 million population.
Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip, speaking at a press conference, also said the government was in talks with financial institutions, tertiary schools and theme parks to set up inoculation centers for staff to ramp up the vaccination rate.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said at the briefing she had already sent letters to more than 100 firms urging them to follow in the footsteps of the government’s measures.
“From now until the end of August is a crucial time for pandemic prevention,” Lam said. “We’re kicking off the ‘Early Vaccination for All’ campaign today to boost the vaccination rate, in order to achieve herd immunity.”
Health Secretary Sophia Chan joined her colleagues’ calls for people to get vaccinated, warning that if another wave of coronavirus sweeps the territory those who have not been inoculated could face more restrictions.
More than 2.3 million coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Hong Kong, with the lackluster rate resulting in a surplus of doses that are due to expire as soon as August.
Roughly 21 percent of the population aged 16 and above has had at least one dose, Lam said.
The latest move comes as some businesses have already announced steps to lure a hesitant public, with Sino Group, Ng Teng Fong Charitable Foundation and Chinese Estates Holdings dangling a new flat worth HK$10.8 million ($1.4 million) as the top prize in a vaccine lottery.
The government has also relaxed some coronavirus rules for vaccinated people in a bid to encourage inoculations as worries over adverse reactions and a lack of confidence in the Chinese-made Sinovac vaccine hamper the vaccination rate.
Hong Kong offers both Sinovac and Germany’s BioNTech vaccines and residents can choose.
The global financial hub has kept COVID-19 transmission largely under control, recording more than 11,800 cases and 210 deaths, much lower than many other developed cities.
While life in Hong Kong has largely returned to normal with schools reopened and restaurants and shopping malls full, the government still limits gatherings outside to no more than four people.
Critics of the rules say they are aimed at preventing a repeat of anti-government street protests that rocked the former British colony in 2019.
Hong Kong dangles two days of paid leave for civil servants to boost COVID-19 vaccine rate
https://arab.news/5ek7q
Hong Kong dangles two days of paid leave for civil servants to boost COVID-19 vaccine rate
- Carrie Lam: ‘From now until the end of August is a crucial time for pandemic prevention’
- More than 2.3 million coronavirus vaccines have been administered in Hong Kong
Neighbors of alleged Bondi gunmen shocked by deadly rampage
- Local media named the two suspected gunmen as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram
SYDNEY: Like many people in Sydney, Glenn Nelson spent his Sunday evening watching television coverage of a deadly shooting on the city’s iconic Bondi Beach.
But stepping onto his front porch, flanked by neatly trimmed box hedges, he saw armed police cordoning off the street before raiding the house opposite — home of the two suspects who are alleged to have killed 15 people in Australia’s worst mass shooting in decades.
“I thought, ‘Okay, I’ll catch the rest in the morning,’ the next thing, the drama is out the front door,” he said in an interview on Monday, shortly after mowing his lawn.
Nelson and other neighbors said the family living across the street kept to themselves, but seemed like any other in the suburb of Bonnyrigg, a working-class, well-kept enclave with an ethnically diverse population around 36 km (22 miles) by road from Sydney’s central business district.
Local media named the two suspected gunmen as father and son Sajid and Naveed Akram.
Police have not named the suspects, but they said the older man, 50, was killed at the scene, taking the number of dead to 16, while his 24-year-old son was in a critical condition in hospital.
Police said the son was known to authorities and the father had a firearms license.
The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to a woman on Sunday evening who identified herself as the wife and mother of the suspects.
She said the two men had told her they were going on a fishing trip before heading to Bondi and opening fire on an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
“I always see the man and the woman and the son,” said 66-year-old Lemanatua Fatu, who lives across the street.
“They are normal people.”
Until Sunday’s shooting, Bonnyrigg was an otherwise unremarkable neighborhood typical of Sydney’s sprawling Western suburbs.
It has significant Vietnamese and Chinese communities, along with many residents who were born in Iraq, Cambodia and Laos, according to government data.
The town center, a strip mall with a large adjoining car park, is flanked by a mosque, a Buddhist temple and several churches.
“It’s a quiet area, very quiet,” Fatu said. “And people mind their own business, doing their own thing — until now.”
Not much is currently known about the suspects’ backgrounds.
A Facebook post from an Arabic and Qur'an studies institute appearing to show one of the men was removed on Monday and no one answered the door at an address listed for it in the neighboring suburb of Heckenberg.
On Monday afternoon, as police took down their cordon, several people re-entered the house, covering their faces. They made no comment to the media and did not answer the door.
