The Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) has stated that Venezuela has received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX global vaccine facility intended for poor countries, Reuters news agency reported on Wednesday.

This comes after months of delays that the Venezuelan government attributed to US sanctions.

Venezuela has reportedly received 693,000 doses of Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Inc's (Nasdaq:SVA) COVID-19 vaccine, the first of a total of 11 million it will receive through COVAX, overseen by the GAVI alliance and the World Health Organisation.

So far, Venezuela has depended on Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm's shot to inoculate its population against COVID-19

An additional batch of Sputnik V COVID-19 doses has arrived this week in Venezuela, though authorities did not specify how many arrived.

According to PAHO estimates, about 3.3 million Venezuelans, or around 10% of the population, have been vaccinated.