BUENOS AIRES - Argentine President Alberto Fernandez on Wednesday said his government is devising a mass vaccination scheme against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) to be launched by the end of 2020 or first weeks of 2021.

"We are working tirelessly so that by the end of the year or the first weeks of the next, Argentina will already have a mass vaccination system in place," Fernandez said in a statement released by his office.

Argentina is working with Russia to begin vaccinating the Argentine population against COVID-19 in January and February, said Fernandez.

Starting in March, "we will be able to count on the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine" being developed by the British, he added.

Argentina, which registered its first case of the disease on March 3, confirmed 1,329,005 cases of COVID-19 and 36,106 deaths from the disease as of Tuesday.