HONG KONG -- Hong Kong will begin to give the COVID-19 vaccine to its residents for free on Feb 26 as the first 1 million doses from Sinovac Biotech will arrive on Friday afternoon.

At a press conference on Thursday, Patrick Nip, Secretary for the Civil Service of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government, said that people in priority groups, including medical workers and the aged, can book their first shots online from next Tuesday.

Nursing home staff, public service providers such as street cleaners, postmen and disciplined force members, workers in cross-border transport, including truck drivers and crews, will also be the first to get the vaccine.

Apart from the Sinovac vaccine, 1 million doses of the vaccine developed by Fosun Pharma and BioNTech are expected be shipped to Hong Kong by the end of this month.

As the vaccines are about to come in succession, the inoculation will be carried out in phases, Nip said.

The HKSAR government has secured a total of 22.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, enough to cover Hong Kong's 7.5 million population, as each person needs to take two jabs.