After a delay, Hong Kong is finally expected to start its voluntary vaccination programme as soon as next Friday with Chinese drug Sinovac slated to arrive in the territory today.

At a briefing yesterday, Civil Service Secretary Patrick Nip, the minister helming the city's vaccination roll-out, said the Sinovac jabs will be made available in five community vaccination centres and 18 public general outpatient clinics for priority groups.

Inoculation will be rolled out first to high-risk groups including healthcare staff, workers in nursing and disability care homes, people over the age of 60, those in the disciplinary forces, as well as cross-boundary workers.

The government is expecting one million doses of the Sinovac vaccine to arrive today and another million from Pfizer-BioNTech by month-end. Next month, it will expand access of Sinovac vaccines to private doctors enrolled in the programme, Mr Nip said, adding that there are about 2.4 million people in the priority groups. There will be 29 community vaccination centres islandwide, and 1,200 private doctors from 1,500 clinics have been roped in to help with the roll-out.

Of the 29 centres, 24 will offer Pfizer-BioNTech and rest, Sinovac. Each centre will offer one type of vaccine and operate for at least six months. Mr Nip said: "When the Sinovac vaccines arrive... (they will be) properly stored and arranged from next Tuesday; we will accept bookings for immunisation and finally kick-start the programme from Feb 26."

He stressed that those who want to get vaccinated at the centres or outpatient clinics operated by the Hospital Authority must make a booking in advance. "The booking system will allow us to reserve sufficient vaccines based on actual bookings to reduce wastage," he said.

Mr Nip added that the government will monitor the situation in the first month of the centres' operation before expanding the programme to those with chronic illnesses and then those aged between 16 and 59.

Separately, a number of local delegates to the country's top advisory body crossed the border to Shenzhen yesterday to get the second dose of Sinopharm's vaccine.

Hong Kong recorded eight new infections yesterday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 10,820 and 197 deaths since the pandemic started. All eight cases are due to local transmissions. Dozens were quarantined after coming into contact with infected people at Lunar New Year gatherings.