Peru launched its COVID-19 vaccination campaign on Tuesday with newly arrived doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine, according to local authorities.

A Peruvian health worker from Lima receives a dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 in Lima on February 9, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

Health officials kicked off the program in the intensive care unit of Lima's Arzobispo Loayza Hospital, authorities said, where medical personnel were slated to receive the first of 300,000 doses delivered by Sinopharm on Sunday.

The country plans to begin immediately inoculating one million health officials, police and military personnel, among others, the government said, in the first round of vaccinations that will likely run through March.

Handout picture distributed by the Peruvian presidency of workers unloading a first batch of 300,000 doses of Chinese Sinopharm laboratory vaccines against the Covid-19 that arrived at the airport serving Lima in Callao, Peru, on February 7, 2021. (Photo: AFP)

Peru has recorded more than 1.18 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 42,000 deaths, according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry of Health.