Zhuhai City in south China's Guangdong Province leads the country with an 80 percent vaccination rate as the world's most populous country aims to vaccinate 70 percent to 80 percent of its population by mid-2022 to achieve herd immunity.

By Tuesday 20:30, nearly 1.47 million people aged between 18 and 59 have been inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines in the coastal city, making it the country's first city to achieve a vaccination rate of at least 80 percent, epaper.southcn.com reported on Wednesday.

Zhuhai was listed among the five major cities to receive COVID-19 vaccines in the first phase in Guangdong since the province joined the country's mass vaccination efforts. The other four cities are Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan and Dongguan.

Efforts including temporary inoculation sites and mobile vaccination vehicles are behind the achievement.

To ensure an effortless vaccination program, Zhuhai City coordinates all the medical resources in the city and has set up temporary inoculation sites in places which has convenient transportation and a relatively concentrated population.

So far, the city has 25 fixed and 24 large and medium–sized temporary inoculation sites. And many hospitals in the city have dispatched teams to inoculate workers in enterprises and residents in communities and rural areas.

Meanwhile, 16 buses have been turned into mobile vaccination vehicles to help people get vaccinated without disturbing their normal work and lives.

Since the city started a wide-scale vaccination program on March 21, the vaccination units have grown from original 64 to more than 450 on a daily basis with the number of expected vaccine doses increasing from less than 5,800 to more than 100,000 each day.

With more than 80 percent of residents vaccinated, Zhuhai has laid a solid foundation for a herd immunity in the city, thus consolidating the border city's role of preventing imported COVID-19 cases and curbing local cases.

The Zhuhai experience also sets an example for other border cities and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area with a huge migrant populations to realize local herd immunity as soon as possible.

In the future, Guangdong plans to accelerate vaccination rate in the remaining four cities including Shenzhen and Dongguan to gradually achieve herd immunity in the province.

By Thursday, China has administered more than 211 million doses, according to National Health Commission. This means the overall inoculation rate is less than 16 percent, which is far lower than the minimum vaccination rate needed for herd immunity.

"I hope that China's vaccination rate could reach 70 percent to 80 percent by early 2022 or even by the end of 2021, thus basically achieving herd immunity," said Gao Fu, head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.