HA to consider Budget for 2026/27
The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Housing Authority:
At a meeting today (January 7), the Finance Committee (FC) of the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA) endorsed the 2025/26 Revised Budget and the 2026/27 Proposed Budget.
Under the latest budgets and financial forecasts, it is envisaged that the HA will have the necessary financial resources to meet its recurrent and capital expenditures up to 2029/30.
The FC Chairman, Dr Billy Mak, said after the meeting, "The HA's construction expenditure will continue to rise beyond 2026/27 due to the increase in the number of new public housing projects. To ensure its long-term financial sustainability, the HA has made every effort to reduce construction costs in response to rising expenditure as much as possible. A Project Facilitation Office has been established to co-ordinate various departments to facilitate the completion of public housing projects and to enhance cost-effectiveness in public housing construction. In addition, the HA will trim its annual recurrent expenditure by 2 per cent for both 2026/27 and 2027/28."
Dr Mak added, "The HA will continue to explore various revenue-enhanced/cost-saving measures, for example, advancing the public housing supply in the direction towards a 60:40 ratio between public rental housing/the Green Form Subsidised Home Ownership Scheme and other subsidised sale flats to increase its income from sale of Home Ownership Scheme flats to cope with the rising construction expenditure."
Dr Mak said, "These financial forecasts will inevitably be changed over the next few years due to various factors. They will be updated in the next round of the budgeting exercise. The HA will no doubt stay vigilant and monitor closely, and review its income and expenditure situations."
The HA will hold an open meeting on January 19 to examine the budgets and financial forecasts. The budgets will be submitted to the Chief Executive for approval thereafter.
The Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), Photo source: reference image
DH urges public to stay vigilant as summer influenza season concludes while winter influenza season approaches
The Centre for Health Protection (CHP) of the Department of Health (DH) today (January 8) announced that the summer influenza season has concluded. Seasonal influenza activity has continued to decline in the past few weeks and dropped below the baseline levels during the most recent week. However, influenza activity may rise again as the weather gradually turns colder. With the winter influenza season approaching, the CHP strongly urged those who have not yet received the 2025/26 seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV), particularly high-risk groups such as pregnant women, the elderly, children and those with chronic illnesses. These groups should receive their SIV promptly to reduce the risk of severe illness and death from infection.
Summer influenza season concludes and winter influenza season approaches
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"Hong Kong entered the summer influenza season in early September last year. Seasonal influenza activity peaked in mid-to-late October last year and has since been gradually declining. The latest surveillance data shows that the percentage of respiratory specimens tested positive for seasonal influenza viruses during the most recent week (December 28, 2025, to January 3, 2026) was 4.08 per cent, while the influenza admission rate in public hospitals was 0.23 cases per 10 000 population. As both indicators have dropped below the baseline levels (i.e. 4.94 per cent and 0.27 cases per 10 000 population respectively), the CHP confirmed that the summer influenza season has ended. Hong Kong entered the summer influenza season in September last year and it has lasted about four months. The summer influenza season started later than usual," the Controller of the CHP, Dr Edwin Tsui, said.
The predominant virus circulating during this seasonal influenza season was the influenza A (H3) virus strain. As in the past, severe or fatal cases associated with seasonal influenza primarily affect the elderly and children. This summer influenza season recorded 25 severe paediatric influenza cases, including three fatal cases. The affected children were aged between 6 months to 17 years old. Among them, 20 cases (80 per cent) had not received an SIV (including one case who received the 2025/26 SIV only four days before onset of illness. As it generally takes two weeks for the body to develop sufficient protection after vaccination, the case was not protected by the vaccine. Therefore, it is not counted as being vaccinated). During the same period, 507 severe influenza cases were recorded among adults, including 342 deaths. About 80 per cent of severe adult influenza cases involved elderly persons aged 65 or above while over 70 per cent of the patients did not receive an SIV.
"This summer influenza season has ended, meaning there was no overlap between the summer and winter influenza seasons. However, influenza activity may rise again as the weather gradually turns colder in the first quarter of this year and it cannot be ruled out that the circulating virus strains may change as the winter influenza season approaches. Therefore, I once again urge all individuals aged 6 months or older, except those with known contraindications, to act promptly if they have not yet received an SIV. This includes those who contracted influenza during the summer influenza season in order to guard against other circulating virus strains that may emerge during the upcoming winter influenza season. Furthermore, although there are some antigenic differences between the currently circulating influenza A (H3) virus strain and the virus strain contained in the vaccine, an SIV can still offer protection against the variant strain of subclade K, as well as the influenza A (H1) and influenza B strains included in the vaccine," Dr Tsui said.
"Influenza seasons started earlier than usual in multiple regions worldwide last year. Influenza activity in the United States remains at high level and continues to increase, with approximately 11 million persons infected, 120 000 hospitalisations, and 5 000 deaths recorded this season. Influenza activity is anticipated to continue for several more weeks. Meanwhile, influenza activity has recently begun to decline on the Chinese Mainland, in the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Japan," he added.
2025/26 SIV Programmes
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Getting vaccinated against influenza is one of the most effective ways to prevent influenza and its complications. It also reduces the risk of serious illness or death from infection. With the concerted efforts of all sectors of the community (including the medical sector, schools, parents and residential care homes), as of January 4, over 1.91 million doses of influenza vaccine were administered under various SIV programmes in the year 2025/26, representing an increase of approximately 4.4 per cent compared with the same period in the previous influenza vaccination season. Regarding schools, vaccination rates among schoolchildren in different age groups are 2 to 10 percentage points higher compared to the same period last year.
"Although the influenza activity has declined to below the baseline level at the moment, sporadic outbreaks caused by influenza viruses are still possible in schools and residential care homes. For children who did not join the SIV School Outreach Programme, parents should promptly bring their children to private doctors enrolled in the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme to receive an SIV. Moreover, residents and staff of residential care homes for the elderly should get vaccinated promptly. In addition, the SIV coverage rate for children aged 6 months to under 2 years is only about 22 per cent. Although this represents an approximate 5 percentage point increase compared to the same period last year, it is still much lower than that of other age groups. Through the Primary Healthcare Commission, the CHP has urged family doctors to assist in encouraging parents to allow their children to receive an SIV," Dr Tsui said.
The Government has opened all 29 of the DH's Maternal and Child Health Centres (MCHCs) for all children aged 6 months to under 2 years to receive the vaccine; as well as the District Health Centres and District Health Centre Expresses and their service outlets under the Primary Healthcare Commission in the 18 districts, 75 Family Medicine Clinics and 38 public hospitals of the Hospital Authority to provide more choices for the public. For the list of vaccination venues, please refer to the CHP'sVaccination Schemespage. Parents of eligible children may book an appointment for their children to receive vaccination at designated MCHCs via theonline booking system.
Members of the public may refer to the CHP'sCOVID-19 & Flu Express,Seasonal Influenza Webpage,COVID-19 Vaccination Programme Webpage, andVaccination Schemes Webpage, for the latest information.
Source: AI-found images
