MACAO, Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- The government of Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR) started inoculation of the first batch of A/H1N1 vaccines Monday, said the SAR's Health Bureau.

    The first batch of A/H1N1 vaccines, comprising 100,000 doses, was transported to Macao by air last Saturday. Inoculation of these vaccines is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

    Local medical staff along with children, old people and patients with chronic illness, will be firstly inoculated with these vaccines, according to the SAR's Health Bureau. Other people will be inoculated when more vaccines purchased by the SAR government are delivered to Macao in January next year.

    The Bureau has said that a total of 700,000 doses of such vaccines were scheduled to be delivered to Macao. Each dose costs 133 patacas (17 U.S. dollars).

    According to the statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO), over 40 countries around the world have initiated mass inoculation of A/H1N1 vaccines, and it was estimated that some 65 million people have been inoculated with around 80 million doses of such vaccines.

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