López Obrador announced the purchase of 140 million …

After recording a worrying figure of 1,200 deaths in one day from the coronavirus, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced the purchase of 140 million doses of vaccines to fight the pandemic. The figure would be enough to vaccinate the vast majority of its more than 127 million inhabitants. The Latin American country has already received the first shipments of the American vaccine Pfizer and Russian Sputnik V, and on Sunday obtained its first batch of 870 thousand doses of AstraZeneca. produced in India. Mexico also became the first country in Latin America to receive China’s CanSino vaccine, which only requires a single dose. In another part of your conference, López Obrador suggested that Mexico’s future vaccine against covid-19 be called “Patria”, mimicking the name of the Sovereign vaccine developed in Cuba.

After several weeks with the vaccination plan at a standstill, Mexico will begin vaccination of adults over 60 on Monday. Mexico is the third country in the world in number of deaths from the coronavirus (173,771), barely overtaken by the United States and Brazil. January was the deadliest month in nearly a year of the pandemic, with 32,729 deaths. Mexican officials say 60 percent of infections that month occurred during home gatherings.

First the most needy

“This purchase will help us a lot so that all the vaccine has already been acquired, 140 million doses that we already have, all the vaccine necessary to protect our population has already been purchased.“, he pointed Lopez Obrador during a visit to the southern state of Oaxaca.

The President took advantage of the presence at Indian Ambassador to Mexico, Mampreet Vohra, to thank the “solidarity” of the Asian country by authorizing the sending of vaccines even when India, with 10.9 million infections, also needs them urgently. The Ambassador replied that It is “a very special gift” for Valentine’s Day.

López Obrador also presented the ambitious mass vaccination plan that will begin in the country on Monday: “We want all 15,717,170 adults over 60 to be vaccinated with the first dose no later than mid-April.”. The government will vaccinate the elderly in 333 municipalities across the country with 870,000 doses of AstraZeneca, prioritizing the poorest.

According to the president’s calculations, if the country’s elderly are vaccinated, mortality in Mexico will be reduced by 80%. “We made this decision to start vaccination in all states, in the most remote and marginalized municipalities, with the poorest population in the country,” added López Obrador, who was criticized in December by several governors for having launched the vaccination plan only in the capital. and in the state of Coahuila.

During, Mexico is moving forward with the final stage of production of doses of AstraZeneca manufactured in the region, first in Argentina and then on Aztec territory. These will be distributed entirely in Latin America in the coming weeks and months. The country began immunizing health workers on December 24 with the first doses it received from Pfizer.

In another part of his talk, López Obrador referred to the own vaccine that Mexico is developing. “With all due respect, because these are initiatives of public research centers but also of private companies, we will suggest that our vaccine is called Patria. We have already deleted the name, “he said. The president proposed the name to mimic the Cuban vaccines Soberana 01 and Soberana 02, which are under development by the Finlay Vaccine Institute. “In Mexico, there is also an investigation,” recalled López Obrador.

Present at the press conference in Oaxaca, the Secretary for External Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, explained that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) has already registered six vaccines in the clinical phase: two Cubans, one Mexican, one Chilean, one Argentinian and one Brazilian.