The Government today announced the latest arrangements for the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme in light of advice from experts, including the booster jab plan.

People belonging to the priority groups can receive a free additional vaccine booster six months after their last dose or COVID-19 infection this year, regardless of the number of vaccine doses they received in the past.

The priority groups include people aged 50 or above, people aged 18 to 49 years with underlying comorbidities, people aged six months or above and with immunocompromising conditions, pregnant women and healthcare workers.

They can make a booking online to receive an additional vaccine booster starting from 9am on April 20.

Eligible children aged five to 11 may also visit children community vaccination centres to receive their third vaccine dose starting from today without prior booking.

Other members of the public who have yet to complete their first three doses of the vaccine can make a booking online. People aged 50 or above and children aged below 18 may also visit community vaccination centres to get vaccinated through walk-in services.

Starting from April 20, those wishing to receive vaccine boosters exceeding the Government specified free doses will need to get the vaccine in the private market at their own expense.

In view of the fact that demand for home vaccination service has drastically decreased, the service will stop accepting new registrations starting from April 15.

Starting from April 1, the co-ordinating role of the new phase of the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme will be handed over from the Civil Service Bureau to the Health Bureau and the Department of Health.

Separately, the Department of Health today said that it is investigating and following up on an incident of 21 people being administered with Comirnaty bivalent vaccines and ancestral strain vaccines after the suggested use-by date by UMP Medical Centre (Kowloon Bay).

The Department of Health immediately requested the medical service provider to submit a report upon receiving the notification in the late afternoon yesterday.

It conducted an inspection at the medical centre this morning, and reminded staff to regularly check the suggested use-by date of the vaccines, store vaccines with different suggested use-by dates separately and handle the expired vaccines in accordance with the guidelines.

The centre was also urged to avoid a recurrence of similar incidents.