Macau started this morning its COVID-19 vaccination campaign with Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng as the first local resident to be inoculated against the novel coronavirus.
Ho was vaccinated during a ceremony held at the public Conde de Sao Januario Hospital to mark the start of the campaign.
The jabs are free of charge for local residents, non-resident workers and non-local students. The campaign is carried out on a voluntary basis.
Several other senior government officials were also inoculated, together with members of priority groups such as medical workers on the front-line in the fight against COVID-19 as well as police and customs officers and firefighters.
Macau received its first batch of Sinopharma jabs from the mainland on Saturday. The government has also ordered BioNTech and AstraZeneca jabs.
The vaccination campaign for the general population will start on February 22. Appointments for the jabs started today.
Macau has confirmed 48 COVID-19 cases since January 22 last year. No locally-transmitted cases have been reported in Macau for over 10 months. Foreign nationals have been barred from entering Macau since March last year. Macau never imposed a lockdown but well over 90 percent of the population has been wearing facemasks for over a year.
Observers have described Macau as an "oasis" in the world's COVID-19 "desert".
