Hong Kong, Jun 13 (IANS): Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Sunday urged residents of the city to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in an effort to allow the global financial hub to return to normal at an early date.

Hong Kong must work to raise the vaccination rate so that people can make trips for businesses, tourism or family reunions as before, Lam said on her social media account.

The vaccine rollout has picked up pace as some 54,000 doses were administered in the city of a 7.5-million population on Saturday, a new high since the government inoculation program started in February.

More than 1.7 million Hong Kong residents have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, accounting for 26 per cent of eligible groups, with 1.18 million people fully inoculated.

With zero increases in both local and imported cases on Sunday, Hong Kong has not reported any locally transmitted cases for six consecutive days.

Hong Kong has so far reported a total of 11,877 coronavirus cases with 210 deaths.