China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) officially began its COVID-19 inoculation campaign on Friday.

Five groups of people, including residents aged 60 and above, healthcare workers, nursing home staff, public service providers such as street cleaners and taxi drivers, as well as workers in cross-border transport, will receive their first shot of a vaccine developed by Chinese company Sinovac.

People in the five categories can get the shots at five community vaccination centers across the city.

Tung Chee-hwa, the first chief executive of the HKSAR, also got the jab on Friday. The 83-year-old said he felt "very well" after the shot, adding that the vaccine can protect him and his family, as well as Hong Kong.

He called on all Hong Kong residents to get vaccinated so as to defeat the virus.

On February 22, HKSAR Chief Executive Carrie Lam and other officials were vaccinated against the disease.

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

The first batch of 1 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine arrived in the city on February 19.

Apart from the Sinovac vaccine, 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Fosun Pharma and BioNTech are expected to be shipped to Hong Kong by the end of this month.