Uganda’s National Medical Stores (NMS) on Wednesday said it has started the distribution of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines across the country.

Trucks were dispatched to different parts of the country to distribute the 300,000 Sinovac doses donated by the Chinese government, NMS spokesperson Sheila Nduhukire said in a statement.

According to the ministry of health, Uganda expects to receive at least 12.3 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by early 2022.

The country aims at vaccinating about 22 million people, or nearly half the population, as a measure to put the pandemic at bay.

As of Tuesday, about 1.2 million people had been vaccinated since the exercise started in March this year.