Hong Kong primary schools will be allowed to resume full-day, in-person classes if 70 per cent of their students have received at least one dose of the BioNTech vaccine or two jabs of Sinovac, and if the same proportion of staff are also inoculated against Covid-19.

The Education Bureau announced its decision in a letter to all schools on Tuesday, with the Chinese-produced Sinovac vaccine made available to children aged five to 11 from last Friday, and the German-made BioNTech jabs to be offered from February 16.

When asked if kindergartens could resume full-day, in-person classes for five-year-old students in their third school year (or K3) if the vaccination rate reached 70 per cent, a spokesman for the bureau said it had no plans to resume full-day, in-person classes for kindergarten students.

“Kindergarten students are young and their self-care capability is relatively lower. In addition, the school setting and ways of teaching at kindergartens are very different from primary and secondary schools,” the spokesman said.

He added that kindergartens should remain open to take care of students who had to go back to schools because of the lack of carers at home.

Parents choosing Sinovac for their children can book an appointment at any of the community vaccination centres, the Hospital Authority’s designated general outpatient clinics, at student health service centres or private clinics.

Alternatively, parents can choose between three vaccination centres on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon or the New Territories designated for children receiving BioNTech jabs.

The latest announcement came after the bureau suspended in-person classes in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools due to an Omicron outbreak in the city. Students will not be returning to campus until at least February 7.

Form Six pupils studying for the Diploma of Secondary Education exams in April will still be allowed to attend classes, but not for more than half a day.

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said in mid-January that the age threshold for receiving the Sinovac vaccine would be lowered from 12 to five.

The government’s Advisory Panel on Covid-19 Vaccines later said children aged five to 11 should be offered 10-microgram doses of the BioNTech vaccine – a third of an adult dose, although the pharmacy had not filed an application to introduce its paediatric version in Hong Kong.

70 per cent of students need to get at least one dose of the BioNTech vaccine or two jabs of Sinovac for full-day classes to return.

Panel members explained that they did not wait because global supply of the BioNTech paediatric version was tight.

The bureau said special schools and those offering non-local curriculum, such as international schools, should refer to the arrangements made for local schools. It added that new rules did not apply to tutorial centres.

In-person classes would only resume for certain grades if the number of students in those classes met the vaccination threshold, the bureau said.

All staff, visitors and service providers will soon be barred from entering school grounds if they fail to show proof of vaccination, according to the government’s announcement last week.

Last Friday, Undersecretary for Education Christine Choi Yuk-lin said teachers who had not received Covid-19 shots could face legal consequences for entering campuses from late February amid the expansion of Hong Kong’s vaccine bubble to cover all local schools.

“For school staff, if they cannot enter the school premises, it means they cannot perform their job duties. This will be deemed an unjustified absence from work,” Choi said. “If they insist on going to school [without vaccination proof], it will be regarded as entering the school premises without permission.”

Vu Im-fan, a principal and chairwoman of the Subsidised Primary Schools Council, said vaccination arrangements at schools also depended on the resumption of half-day, in-person classes.

“It is too early to say how many schools can reach the 70 per cent vaccination rate … we now have no students at school because of the in-person class suspension,” she said, adding that she thought the pace of vaccination in primary schools would be slower than in secondary schools.

New Territories School Heads Association vice-chairman Chu Wai-lam, who is also the headmaster of Fung Kai No 1 Primary School in Sheung Shui, said he believed some schools in the area which were hit hardest by the surge in Omicron might see a rise in vaccination rate, and in-person classes could resume for them.

“I think parents are now more willing to let their kids get vaccinated as the spread of the virus has made the parents more worried than before,” he said.