MACAO, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Macao's Health Bureau announced on Friday that it will start inoculating local residents with A/H1N1 flu vaccines in January next year.

    Local medical staff and high-risk group, including children, old people and patients with chronic illness, will be firstly inoculated, according to the Bureau.

    The first batch of the vaccines ordered by the Bureau was expected to be delivered to Macao in November 2009. The Bureau has previously announced that it has ordered one million doses of these vaccines, and will encourage all local residents to be inoculated for free.

    Health authorities in the United States and Australia have already begun inoculating residents with A/H1N1 vaccines. The Bureau said that it will closely follow the situation in these countries, so as to assess the incidence rate of adverse pharmacological effects of these vaccines.

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