Mexico approves Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, to start inoculation next week

Mexico’s Medical Safety Commission, on December 11, approved the emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, making it the fifth country in the world and first in Latin America to do so. As per country’s assistant Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, the health agency began reviewing data on November 26, following which a 24-member committee voted unanimously to approve its use. As of now, UK, US, Canada and Bahrain have approved Pfizer-BioNTech jab.

As per Associated Press, Mexico is set to receive 250,000 doses of the vaccine, two shots for each of the 125,000 people it houses. Talking about the priority group, Lopez-Gatell said that frontline healthcare workers would be the first ones to be inoculated. While the vaccination drive is set to begin next week, he said that all acquisitions of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines would be at the federal level, and individual state governments could not purchase on their own.

COVID-19 cases surge

Citing it as a reason for hope, Lopez-Gatell said that the approval was, of course, a reason for hope, even though the initial rounds of shots weren’t enough for Mexico’s total Ccovd-19cases. As per official tally, the Latin American nation till now has reported over 1,229,379 cases of COVID-19, out of 113,019 have died. Regardless, experts have claimed that the toll was a lot more than the reported. Interestingly, Mexico's Agriculture Department confirmed December 10 that a total of four dogs that had been in contact with humans infected with the coronavirus had tested positive for the virus.

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This comes as the US, another country on the North American continent gave the final go-ahead on December 11 to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans, according to a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

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​​​​​​​Read: Mexico's COVID-19 Deaths Average 55 Years Vs. 75 In Europe