SANTIAGO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Chilean Health Minister Enrique Paris reported on Friday that 454,155 people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in the country so far, as part of the mass vaccination plan that kicked off on Wednesday.

"We hope this level of participation at vaccination centers continues in the next few days, which will achieve the immunization of critical groups," the official said in a statement.

Of the total number of people immunized, 91,843 are over 85 years old, since the Chilean vaccination plan began with this age group considered to be at risk.

Chile's vaccination plan is underway thanks to the almost 4 million doses which arrived in the country from Chinese firm Sinovac.

According to the latest report from the Ministry of Health, the South American country has accumulated 744,019 COVID-19 cases and 18,808 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic, after reporting 3,786 infections and 77 deaths in the last 24 hours.