Beijing, Jan 4 (IANS): A total of 73,537 people have received a vaccine against the novel coronavirus in Beijing in just two days after the Chinese capital started administering the jab among specific groups of people with higher infection risks.

No serious side effects have been observed among the vaccine receivers, Xinhua news agency quoted Gao Xiaojun, a spokesperson for the municipal health commission, as saying at a press briefing on Sunday.

The inoculation, which began on January 1 across 220 venues in Beijing, currently mainly covers nine groups of people aged 18 to 59 in Beijing.

These include frontline customs inspectors of imported cold-chain goods and personnel working in the overseas and domestic transportation sector.

People receiving the jab will have the information updated on Beijing's health code app, Gao said, adding that those who have urgent plans to travel overseas can apply for Covid-19 inoculation at the community service centre.

After the vaccines receive market approval, authorities in Beijing will start vaccination for other groups on a reservation basis, said Gao at an earlier press conference.

On December 31, 2020, China announced that it had granted conditional marketing authorisation to its first self-developed Covid-19 vaccine.

The inactivated vaccine got approval from the National Medical Products Administration.

It was developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co. Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group, affiliated with Sinopharm.