JAKARTA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- Athletes in Indonesia started receiving COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, Indonesia's Vice President Ma'ruf Amin said.

According to the vice president, athletes are a vaccination priority group, especially those who will participate in domestic and global sports competitions.

"Then they must have good physiques. Don't let them fail to take part in the competitions because they are exposed to COVID-19," Amin said.

Youth and Sports Minister Zainudin Amali noted that one of the upcoming global sports competitions is the Tokyo Olympics, which was scheduled for this summer.

In the first stage, 5,000 athletes in Indonesia will be vaccinated against COVID-19, followed by another 7,000 in the second stage.

Indonesia began its mass COVID-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 13, with a target of inoculating 181.5 million people until next year.

So far, 28 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech have been available in Indonesia.