Dozens of officials of Senegal received their first shot of China's Sinopharm vaccine to demonstrate its safety after the nation launched its wider COVID-19 immunization campaign on Wednesday.

At a health center in Patte d'Oie, a densely populated neighbourhood of Senegal's capital Dakar, the halls were packed with people, mostly the elderly, wearing colorful clothes, including imams in flowing robes and a pair of Catholic priests in their cassocks.

Ousmane Dieng, an imam, said he traveled throughout the city ahead of the campaign's launch, hoping to convince people to put aside fear and take the vaccine for the greater good.

"It was with a feeling of immense joy that we welcomed the vaccine. We are fully confident about it, knowing it won't kill us," Dieng said after getting his shot.

"We have seen how COVID manifests itself, and so it was with a smile that we can get vaccinated and at last achieve immunity," said Baye Moussa Samba, a doctor at a health center in the Sicap neighbourhood, which was previously a COVID testing center.

Senegal aims to inoculate about 90 percent of a targeted 3.5 million people, including health workers and high-risk individuals, by the end of 2021.

The country is negotiating with Russia for more vaccines and is also eligible to get 3.4 million doses for just under $23 million under an African Union plan.

The West African country is one of the first in the region to start vaccinating its population against COVID-19. It has so far recorded 33,242 cases and 832 deaths from the disease. Around 100,000 people are expected to be vaccinated with the 200,000 vaccine doses received from China last week.

A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that China has provided free vaccine assistance to 53 countries in need, and 27 countries have purchased the vaccine from China.

As a lower-middle income country, Senegal is also eligible for about 1.3 million vaccine doses for free through the first wave of the World Health Organization's COVAX programme in early March.

(With input from Reuters)