HONG KONG -- Children aged between six months and three years in Hong Kong will be able to receive Sinovac COVID-19 jabs from Thursday, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Tuesday.

As the fifth wave of COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong has led to deaths and severe cases among children, the HKSAR government urged parents to schedule vaccinations for their young children as early as possible so as to lower the risks.

Starting Aug 4, people in Hong Kong aged 50 to 59 who have received third doses of Sinovac or Comirnaty vaccine may also receive a fourth dose of the vaccine at least three months after the last dose.

Since the start of a mass inoculation program in February last year, about 6.77 million people, or 93 percent of the eligible population in Hong Kong, have taken at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, while over 6.5 million, or 89.6 percent of the eligible population, have taken two doses.

As of Tuesday, 67.5 percent of the eligible people in Hong Kong have taken the third dose, and a total of 210,159 people have taken the fourth jab.

On Tuesday, Hong Kong registered 3,889 confirmed locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 and 234 imported cases, official data showed.