Residents queue up to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the Community Vaccination Centre at the Kowloon Bay Sports Centre in Hong Kong on Feb 26, 2021. (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

HONG KONG - About 7,000 persons in Hong Kong received their first dose of the vaccine under the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme on Saturday, bringing the cumulative total of those inoculated since Feb 22 to about 13,600.   

In a statement issued on Saturday night, a government spokesman reminded members of the public that getting vaccinated would protect not just themselves but also their loved ones and also help reduce the risk of a community outbreak. 

“We call on the citizens in the five priority groups to get vaccinated early so that our economy and way of life could return to normal as soon as possible," the spokesman was quoted as saying in the statement.

The HKSAR government has procured a total of 22.5 million doses of vaccines, with 7.5 million shots each from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and BioNTech

The first shipment of 585,000 doses of Fosun Pharma-BioNTech vaccine arrived in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region from Germany on Saturday.

ALSO READ: HK rolls out mass coronavirus vaccination program

The HKSAR government has procured a total of 22.5 million doses of vaccines, with 7.5 million shots each from Sinovac, AstraZeneca and BioNTech. The first batch of 1 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine arrived in the city from Beijing on Feb 19. 

The government said the remaining doses of the first batch of 1 million Fosun Pharma-BioNTech vaccines will arrive in the city in early March.

Hong Kong reported 33 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, the largest one-day increase since Feb 5, as a cluster originated from a restaurant in Tsim Sha Tsui further expanded.

READ MORE: Chief secretary: Mainland-made vaccines boost HK's virus fight