Mass vaccinations underway in all Beijing districts

Mass vaccinations for individuals have started in all districts in Beijing in recent days, the city's government said.

The city completed coronavirus vaccinations for around 3.63 million people by Sunday. It has a population of more than 21 million.

Beijing started vaccinating nine key groups of individuals on Jan 1 and completed the work early this month.

The nine groups included customs inspectors dealing with imported cold-chain food products, workers at entry ports and workers in the international and domestic transportation industries. Delivery workers, people traveling abroad for work or personal reasons, medical workers and government department workers were also included.

The municipal government said vaccination of individuals will continue in the coming weeks.

After the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended on Feb 17, many districts started vaccinating people who had made reservations online. The work is usually organized with the help of communities.

"Receiving vaccination is good for our health. Meanwhile, as a company in the service industry, our customers can be less worried when our staff have taken the doses," said Jia Feiyue, president of Beijing Huatian Catering Group, which owns many restaurants in the city.

Jia said 90 percent of its staff members have been vaccinated.

Xicheng district, where the group is headquartered, has organized vaccinations for restaurant staff since the middle of this month.

By Monday, 20,000 of the 48,000 restaurant staff in the district had been vaccinated and the work is continuing. Vaccinations for people working in other industries will then follow.

Zhang Guoshun, an official from Xicheng's market supervision bureau, said signs have been put up denoting restaurants where more than 80 percent of staff have been vaccinated.

Beijing's Dongcheng district started mass vaccinations on Feb 8. With 17 vaccination sites, 22,700 people can be vaccinated each day, district authorities said.

By Monday, Dongcheng's health authority had given 401,576 doses, including first and second doses.

People who have taken both doses are considered to have completed the vaccination.

For large institutions and companies, many districts will send teams to workplaces to offer vaccinations.

In Haidian district, where many companies are based, the authorities sent medical teams to companies to improve vaccination efficiency.

Tencent Group, whose Beijing headquarters are in Haidian, organized for 3,800 staff members to be vaccinated on Monday and Tuesday.

Jiang Chu, director of Haidian district's disease prevention and control center, was invited to the company's vaccination site to answer inquiries about the vaccinations both on-site and online, through a livestreaming broadcast.

Chen Miao, who works in marketing at Benewake, another technology company in Haidian, said the government has provided great service.

"Many of my colleagues have received the doses, as the whole process was simple and easy," she said. "I believe the government workers have made lots of effort to simplify the procedures."