Peru began distribution of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine Tuesday morning, with primary care health workers given priority during the initial phase of the rollout.
The country has been participating in clinical trials of the Sinopharm vaccine since last year, becoming the first Latin American country to market the Chinese vaccine.
A group of doctors at Arzobispo Loayza Hospital in Lima were the first to receive the vaccine Tuesday morning, state news agency Andina reported.
President Francisco Sagasti is expected to be vaccinated later on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Peru received its first shipment of 300,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine, and expects to receive the remaining 700,000 doses on Feb. 14. The armed forces will be responsible for distributing the vaccine across the country.
Secretary of State Elizabeth Astete announced on Monday that her government has reached an agreement with Pfizer to supply 20 million doses of their vaccine, state news agency Andina reported.
Astete told a congressional committee that 250,000 doses will arrive in March and at least 300,000 by April, Andina reported.
“We were confident that Peru will have received a minimum of 5,750,000 vaccines by July 1 and the supply will increase significantly to 20 million since then,” said Astete.
Astete also told lawmakers that her government has signed an agreement to receive 6.6 million doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca through the Covax program to vaccinate 20% of the population.
President Sagasti, who took office in November, was criticized for the delay in concluding supply agreements for the vaccine.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), Peru currently has 1,186,698 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 42,308 deaths.
The country is reporting more than 6,000 cases per day, up from 2,000 cases per day in early January, while also facing a shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and oxygen during this new wave of the pandemic.
According to data from JHU, Peru has the fifth highest number of Covid-19 cases in Latin America, after Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Mexico.