Hong Kong’s health chief on Saturday stressed that vaccinations are the most protective way to prevent serious flu complications, including hospital admission and even deaths, as the city is officially within influenza season.

“We have to remind everyone that in the year of 2024, with a very long flu season, 35 kids who suffered from severe flu complications had to be hospitalized. And among these 35, six kids died, and we did not want this to happen,” Professor Lo Chung-mau said while speaking to reporters after attending a radio program in the morning.

With the influenza season just starting, a four-year-old child, who had not received flu vaccine while the school has not offered the outreach vaccination program, suffered severe flu complications and has now been hospitalized in the intensive care unit, he said.

“We do not want any further serious flu cases to happen. This kid has been healthy all along,”

The health secretary said the special administrative region government must inform parents about which schools are not offering on-site flu shots so that they can plan to get their children vaccinated elsewhere.

Prof Lo’s comment came a day after the Department of Health named 168 schools that have refused to arrange seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) outreach activities for students.

READ MORE: 168 HK schools refused to arrange flu vaccination for students, govt reveals

The transparency isn't about damaging the reputation of certain schools, but about protecting children's health, he said while replying to a question about public naming of 168 schools for refusing to join what is meant-to-be voluntary vaccination program.

“If the parents are not aware that their schools are not offering the program, they would not be aware of the fact that they would need to bring their kids to private clinics, or whatever facilities, to arrange vaccinations for their own kids.”

There could be different reasons, but the fact is that they haven't offered the outreach program, which has been very successful, he said.

The percentage of participating schools from kindergarten to secondary levels has significantly increased, because it’s a free-of-charge vaccination with facilitation such as nasal vaccines for young kids, according to the secretary.

“We are concerned how many kids have not received the vaccines, and we have the duty to protect them.”

Speaking about public dental services, he said elderly patients now no longer need to wait in long queues outside dental clinics in cold weather following the introduction of a new online appointment system.

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“We provide every method for these elderly even if they do not have a cellphone, and they do not know how to use online booking, they can easily go to the clinics and we have staff at the door front to help them make the appointments.”

He expressed his hope that at the age of 80, the city’s elderly will still be able to retain their teeth, “at least have more than 20 teeth”.

The government is planning to expand the student dental care program to include both kindergarten and secondary students, aiming to roll it out within this year.