BOGOTA: Colombia's first COVID-19 vaccines - 50,000 from Pfizer - will arrive in the Andean country on Monday afternoon, President Ivan Duque said in an early morning announcement.

The government said last week it is expecting to receive more than 5.7 million doses of vaccines from different providers in February and March. It plans to administer its first dose on Saturday.

"Today we remember all the victims of COVID-19, the more than 57,000 irreplaceable Colombians who have left a void and who we will honor fighting the virus with a vaccine," Duque said in a video statement on social media.

"This afternoon the first shipment of vaccines from the pharmaceutical company Pfizer with the first 50,000 vaccines will arrive in our country from Belgium," Duque said.

The goal is to vaccine 1 million Colombians in the first 30 days, he added, and Monday's shipment is the first of a block of 1.65 million that will arrive over the next three weeks.

Colombia has recorded more than 2.1 million cases of coronavirus.