Mexico needs 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses, to start shots in April 2021

On August 15, a senior government official said in a statement that Mexico will need up to 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses to cater to its 120 million population to build immunity to the coronavirus. As planned, the vaccine dosages might commence being administered on the population as early as April 2021 if the clinical trials conducted by the pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca Plc give back successful results, as per reports.  

Last month, the American biopharmaceutical company signed an agreement to provide contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) services for large-scale commercial manufacturing for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222, which it co-developed with the University of Oxford. The vaccine had so far shown “good results” in initial large-scale human trials, as per the reports. While COVID-19 peaked in Mexico over the last three weeks according to the health ministry data, Mexico's government has sought to secure a vaccine quickly for the treatment of the second largest Latin American country’s population.  

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While AstraZeneca proposes to manufacture 400 million doses of vaccine for distribution throughout Latin America, Mexican deputy foreign minister, Martha Delgado, was quoted as saying in a report that the firm will deliver between 30 and 35 million vaccines per month. Further, she added, it may be required to administer 2 dosages per individual for the vaccine to be effective against COVID-19 disease. She furthermore stressed that Mexico needed a minimum of 200 million vaccine doses that could be made available early April in Mexico. 

To provide protection for 1 year

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has reportedly been negotiating with several other pharmaceutical firms who are in different phases of clinical trials, as per media reports. Astra's production wasn’t going to be enough for Mexico, a media report quoted him saying. AstraZeneca's chief executive said that the potential coronavirus vaccine is likely to provide protection against contracting COVID-19 for at least a year while speaking with the state broadcaster. chief executive Pascal Soriot told broadcasters the company plans to begin delivering the vaccine to European countries by the end of the year 2020 under the agreement with the Inclusive Vaccine Alliance. 

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