Senegal has paid a little over two billion CFA francs ($3.72 million) for 200,000 doses of a Covid-19 vaccine — nearly $19 per shot — developed by China’s Sinopharm, a finance ministry spokesman said, according to a Reuters report.

Finance ministry spokesman Balle Preira confirmed the cost of the shots, which will cover only a fraction of its population of 16m, without giving further details.

As a lower-middle income country, Senegal is eligible for around 1.3m doses of AstraZeneca vaccines for free in the first wave of disbursement from the WHO’s Covax program to provide vaccines globally.