HONG KONG – Hong Kong today scrapped a plan to make Covid-19 vaccines mandatory for foreign domestic workers after the proposal sparked an outcry and a diplomatic tussle with the Philippines.
Health officials planned to roll out mandatory inoculations for the city’s 370,000 maids, mostly poorly paid women from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Those wanting to apply for work visas – or renew their current ones – would need to show they have received two doses.
But today, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced a U-turn.
“The government has decided not to request mandatory vaccination when helpers renew their contracts,” she said, adding that the decision was made after meetings with officials from the Philippines and Indonesia.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin previously warned that the initial proposal “smacked of discrimination”.
Hong Kong health officials announced the mandatory vaccination plan after two domestic workers were found to be infected with one of the more virulent strains of the coronavirus.
They said domestic workers are “high risk” because they often work with the elderly and meet at parks on Sundays, usually their one day off a week.
Labour groups representing maids said they feel they were being singled out, noting that the families they worked for – as well as locals working in environments such as care homes – are not required to get vaccinated.
They also pointed out that wealthier foreign migrants such as the city’s white-collar financial workers were not forced to get vaccinated when outbreaks were traced to their well-heeled districts.
Thanks to strict quarantine measures and economically painful social-distancing rules, Hong Kong has kept Covid-19 infections to just under 12,000 cases and 210 deaths.
It has secured ample vaccine doses, but the public take-up has been very low.
So far, just 16% of the financial hub’s 7.5 million people have received one or more doses, a long way from the 60% to 70% considered necessary for herd immunity.
Regular polling shows that Hong Kong folk have some of the lowest support ratings for inoculation in the world.
Some of the city’s Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines will pass their shelf-life in September, and officials fret they may be in the unenviable position of throwing away good doses.
The vaccination drive has been hampered by the government’s public trust deficit.
After huge democracy protests exploded in 2019, Hong Kong’s unpopular unelected leaders, with China’s backing, have overseen a sweeping crackdown on dissent. – AFP, May 11, 2021
