-- "I can now rest assured," a cold-chain worker in Shandong Province tells of how he feels after getting the first jab of the COVID-19 vaccine.

JINAN, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- COVID-19 vaccinations are underway among specific groups of people in eastern China's Shandong Province.

At a clinic in the health center of Tancheng County in Shandong, cold-chain workers were among the first to be inoculated.

"We used to be pretty scared when handling the products. Now we are very lucky to be among the first to be vaccinated. I'm very excited and I can now rest assured," said Xia Dongdong, a cold-chain worker.

Xia said after the inoculation, he has had no adverse reactions.

Yan Cuiting, the deputy head of the Tancheng County health center, said that judging from the inoculation of this first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, the vaccines are proving to be quite stable.

"The people inoculated didn't have any notable allergies such as fever or vomiting. At present, we have found that the vaccination has proceeded quite well," said Yan.

China announced last week it had granted conditional marketing authorization for the first COVID-19 vaccine.

The inactivated vaccine, which got approval from the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA), is developed by the Beijing Biological Products Institute Co., Ltd. under the China National Biotec Group (CNBG), affiliated with Sinopharm.

The interim results of its phase-3 clinical trials show 79.34 percent efficacy against COVID-19, meeting the standards of the World Health Organization and the NMPA, according to a press conference by the State Council joint prevention and control mechanism against COVID-19.