NUR-SULTAN / ex ASTANA (Xinhua) — A mass vaccination campaign of the Kazakh population against COVID-19 will be launched in March 2021, the press service of the Kazakh prime minister announced Saturday.

Health care personnel, teachers and people with chronic conditions will be vaccinated on a voluntary basis first, Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin said during a visit to the Research Institute for Biological Safety Problems in the Zhambyl Region.

The institution has conducted phase I and II clinical trials of Kazakhstan’s KazCovid-in vaccine. By the end of December, the vaccination of 3,000 volunteers of phase III trials will be completed.

A biopharmaceutical plant for the production of vaccines in the Zhambyl Region is planned to be put into operation in March 2021, Mamin added. The production capacity will be 60 mln doses per year.

As of Saturday, Kazakhstan has registered 145,932 confirmed COVID-19 cases.