BAKU, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A vaccine made by Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech will be used for mass vaccination against COVID-19 in Azerbaijan, the country's health authorities announced Saturday.

Teymur Musayev, a department head at the Ministry of Health, said at a briefing that the rollout will start on Monday, with health workers and other populations at risk as the priority group.

"The first stage of mass vaccination will cover health and technical workers at medical institutions, as well as law-enforcement staff, servicemen and care staff," he said.

"Azerbaijan got the most safe and effective vaccine," said Shahmar Movsumov, assistant to the president of Azerbaijan, as he praised the China-made jab at the briefing.

"Starting from Jan. 18, health staff will receive the jab, and then beginning from Feb. 1, the over-65s will be vaccinated," he added.

He said Azerbaijan has purchased 4 million doses of the vaccine from Sinovac, the first batch of which has been delivered to the country recently.

The country on Saturday registered 402 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, bringing its total to 226,951, according to the country's Operational Headquarters for COVID-19 prevention and control.