People cross a street in a residential district in Hong Kong on March 10, 2022.
(DALE DE LA REY / AFP)
A volunteer alliance, launched by the Hong Kong Community Anti-Coronavirus Link and the Hong Kong Volunteers Federation, is providing support to residential care homes for the elderly, which have been among the most most affected groups by the pandemic.
Nearly 90 percent of elderly care homes and more than 5,000 staff members have been infected since the fifth wave of the pandemic began, leaving tens of thousands of elderly people at risk, HKCACL chairman Bunny Chan Chung-bun said on Thursday.
The alliance will distribute anti-virus supplies to elderly care homes residential care homes and aims to cover all 794 homes in Hong Kong
The alliance will distribute anti-virus supplies to elderly care homes residential care homes and aims to cover all 794 homes in Hong Kong, Chan said. The alliance has already handed out supplies to over 300 of them, he added.
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With the goal to “Reduce infections, reduce serious illnesses and reduce deaths”, Chan expects the initiative to improve the vaccination rate among the elderly, raise the awareness of the community and enhance its support for the fight against the virus in elderly care homes, and attract more enthusiastic people and volunteers to join the ranks of those already helping elderly people.
The alliance will work with frontline volunteers from Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories to deliver anti-virus supplies collected by the central government and donated by various sectors to the residential care homes quickly and efficiently, said Yu Shun-hui, honorary chairman and project commander of the New Territories Community Anti-Coronavirus Link.
The alliance organized volunteers from across the city to distribute anti-virus supplies to more than 80 residential care homes for the elderly on Thursday.
The initiative has received the strong support of members of the Legislative Council, local community leaders, district councilors, community organizers and citizen volunteers.
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