Mexico pays advance to procure safe COVID-19 vaccines under WHO's COVAX

Mexican foreign ministry on October 10 said that it has paid approximately 159.8 million US dollars to procure the safe and effective in advance under the COVAX initiative to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This comes after Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a release, that it will fund the vaccines and treatments against COVID-19 with resources from Amexcid, foreign entities, and contributions from private foundations under the Mexican Consortium for Vaccines and COVID-19 Treatments initiative. 

According to an ANI report, Mexico said that it has transferred the funds, including an additional 20.6 million US dollars for Vaccine Alliance Gavi under WHO’s COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX Facility). Further, the ministry added, that it presented the risk guarantee documents with respect to procuring vaccines that will immunize 20 percent of the Mexican population, as per the COVAX Facility guarantees. This accounted for 51.5 million doses for vaccination, with two shots per person estimation. The ministry added, under the deal, Mexico will also be able to choose from the 9 experimental candidates currently under trial phases. 

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“The vaccines pillar of the ACT-Accelerator, convened by CEPI GAVI and WHO, is speeding up the search for an effective vaccine for all countries,” WHO said in a release.

“At the same time, it is supporting the building of manufacturing capabilities, and buying supply, ahead of time so that 2 billion doses can be fairly distributed by the end of 2021,” it informed.

US$ 150 million to jumpstart COVAX

Gavi, is a co-leading, global sharing initiative under COVAX for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccines. The board said in a press release that it has approved the provision of US$ 150 million in initial funding to jumpstart support COVAX AMC-eligible countries. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the Gavi Board, said that Gavi aims to “serve the twin goals of moving forward rapidly with our need to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.” Mexico’s funding comes as it hits 809,000 confirmed cases and close to 83k fatalities from coronavirus. 

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