MOSCOW/BUENOS AIRES, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Argentina's Laboratorios Richmond has delivered 995,125 doses of the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine produced in the country to the health ministry, the company said in a joint statement with Russian sovereign fund RDIF.

The company has also supplied 152,500 doses of the second component of the Russian-developed vaccine out of 3 million doses to be produced and supplied in August, they said in the statement.

"Today begins the process of distribution of vaccines made in Argentina," Santiago Cafiero, chief of staff to President Alberto Fernandez, told reporters in Buenos Aires.

"We are very satisfied with the performance of the laboratory because it carried out the task in a very short period of time," he said.

Since the start of Argentina's vaccination campaign, the South American country has received vaccines from China's Sinopharm and Sputnik V, as well as smaller amounts from AstraZeneca, Oxford and U.S.-based Moderna.

A delay in delivering second doses of Sputnik V shots in Argentina had prompted public health officials to start combining the vaccine with second doses from other companies.

Argentina, with a total population of about 45 million, has had more than 108,000 deaths from COVID-19.

Only 9.34 million Argentines have been fully vaccinated so far, according to official data. The government has labeled August "the month of second doses". (Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Lucila Sigal; writing by Polina Devitt and Hugh Bronstein; editing by David Evans and Sonya Hepinstall)