Mexico is ready to start vaccination before the end of December

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that the country will be able to start this process alongside the European Union

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE), Marcelo Ebrard, assured that Mexico will be ready to start the application of the vaccine against COVID-19 before December. In addition, he highlighted the fact that the nation will be prepared to receive the drug at the same time as in the European Union.

“The European Union is ready to start vaccination before the end of DecemberMexico too, ”tweeted the foreign minister in reference to a publication by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who stated that the first vaccines against the coronavirus in her region could be administered at Christmas.

On Wednesday, von der Leyen warned partner countries that they must urgently prepare their logistics chains for the shipment of hundreds of millions of doses. He also stated that “there is finally light at the end of the tunnel”, because the first European citizens can be vaccinated before the end of 2021.

The statement was made because the Commission, the EU’s executive body, has agreements with six potential vaccine suppliers and is working on a seventh. This will allow it to acquire more than 800 million doses, slightly less than double the population of the block, which is around 460 million people.

(Photo: Screenshot)

“Member states must prepare now. We are talking about millions of syringes , we are talking about cold chains , we are talking about organizing vaccination centers , we are talking about personnel trained for them (…) All this has to be prepared, “he warned.

For his part, Foreign Minister Ebrard highlighted on Tuesday the pre-purchase agreements that Mexico made with three of the most advanced vaccines in the clinical process: that of CanSino , that of Pfizer-BioNTech and that of AstraZeneca-Oxford .

In the case of Pfizer-BioNTech , Ebrard explained that the pharmaceutical company will be in charge of all the transportation and distribution logistics of its doses , because Mexico does not have the infrastructure to distribute this vaccine, which requires temperatures of 70 degrees Celsius below zero .

According to the chancellor, the Ministry of Health will determine the vaccination centers to which the pharmacist must take the doses . Regarding these drugs, he said that Pfizer submitted its request for approval of emergency use to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) of the United States on November 20.

(Photo: Daniel Ricardez / EFE)(Photo: Daniel Ricardez / EFE)

“If all this goes as we have said and the regulatory authority (Cofepris) considers that it can be approved, as we hope it will be approved in the United States and in Europe, Mexico will also be starting its process in December ” to apply the vaccine, said Ebrard in the morning presidential conference.

Mexico, with 129 million inhabitants , already has a preliminary vaccination plan with which it plans to apply about 10 million monthly doses free of charge once its commercialization on a large scale is possible. The first to receive it will be health personnel and vulnerable people .

On the other hand, Ebrard did not comment on the new information that emerged about the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine, which had an application error that raised doubts about the preliminary results.

And it is that the group of volunteers who received the lower dose, apparently obtained much better protection than those who received the two full doses. In combination, the drugmaker said, the vaccine had apparent effectiveness of 70%. But the way the companies achieved and reported results have raised questions from some experts.

Source: infobae.com

Mexico Daily Post