HONG KONG - Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam on Sunday called on residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine to let daily lives in the global financial hub return to normal at an early date.

Hong Kong must work to raise the vaccination rate so that people can make trips for businesses, tourism or family reunions as before, Lam said on her social media account.

The vaccine rollout has picked up pace as some 54,000 doses were administered in the region of a 7.5-million population on Saturday, a new high in daily vaccination since the government inoculation program started in late February.

More than 1.7 million Hong Kong residents have taken at least one shot of the vaccine, accounting for 26 percent of eligible groups, with 1.18 million people fully vaccinated.

With zero increases in both local and imported cases on Sunday, Hong Kong has reported no locally transmitted cases for six consecutive days and the COVID-19 tally remained at 11,877.