Christian Carlos. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
The government of Mexico announced this morning the vaccination plan that will be carried out in the country to face the pandemic of COVID-19. The announcement was made by the country's deputy health minister, Hugo Lopez-Gatell.
The vaccine will be universally available and free; that is, it covers the entire population in the country.
It will be initiated in Mexico City and in the state of Coahuila, Mexico with health professionals who are caring for patients with COVID-19.
The vaccination campaign is expected to begin in the third week of December. with vaccines from CanSino Biologics, of Chinese origin with an effectiveness of 97%; the American vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech, with a reported effectiveness of 95%; and, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, of European origin with 90% of effectiveness against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced that funds are ready for the vaccination plan, specifically 20 billion pesos, for the acquisition of 34 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine; 77 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and 35 million doses of the CanSino vaccine.
Lopez-Gatell said that the goal is to reach 75% of the population over 16 years and it was announced that there will be 7 stages in which the vaccination plan is divided and distributed by age groups:
- Health workers. In December 2020 and February 2021.
- Persons 80 years of age and older. Before February 2021.
- People between the ages of 70 and 79. Before February 2021.
- People between 60 and 69 years old. In February and April 2021.
- People between 50 and 59 years old. In April and May 2021.
- People between 40 and 49 years old. In May and June 2021.
- Population under 40 years of age. From June 2021 and before March 2022.
Mexico's foreign minister, Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón, noted that early access to vaccines was also due to early integration into COVAX, which, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), aims to "accelerate the development and manufacture of vaccines against EVD-19 and to ensure fair and equitable access to them for all countries of the world". He also stressed the importance of integrating Mexico into the Gavi Alliance for Vaccines (Gavi), the Coalition for the Promotion of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Minister confirmed that approximately 50 million doses have already been set aside from nine potential COVID-19 vaccine candidates, including vaccines developed by Inovio, Moderna, CureVac, Merk-Themis, Oxford-AstraZeneca, the University of Hong Kong, Novavax, Clover-BioPharma, and the University of Queensland-CLS.
In addition, he said Mexico's health ministry will be able to decide on a total of 18 vaccines as long as phase three testing is completed and approved.
