The president of the Hong Kong Paediatric Society on Tuesday urged parents to get their young children vaccinated against Covid as soon as possible – as there has been a rise in serious cases among young patients.

Dr Patrick Ip made the comment after a 22-month-old girl, who was infected with the virus, died on Monday afternoon.

He told RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme that the emergence of new Omicron variants has resulted in more serious neurological symptoms and airway blockages in young patients.

“The 22-month baby actually died quite unexpectedly … That case is a big alarm to our profession, as well as to our parents.”

Dr Ip also backed the recommendation by government advisors on Monday to lower the minimum vaccination age to six months.

He said some parents have been hesitant about getting their children vaccinated because the pandemic situation had been more stable in recent months.

“But now we know when children are returning to schools and we are relaxing all those social distancing measures, we would expect there would be more and more children being infected, including those very young children,” Dr Ip said.

“So protecting the children with an effective Covid vaccination should be the way to go,” he stressed.