COVID-19: 24 million doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine for Mexico

Mexico will receive 24 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced Monday.

AFP

"We spoke with the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin (...) and I thanked him for the decision to send us 24 million doses of Sputnik V vaccine in the next two months," Mr. López Obrador (AMLO), 67, who tested positive at Covid-19 on Sunday, wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Mexican health authorities were waiting for Russian support for the "earliest possible" delivery of the Russian vaccine.

The official announcement comes at a time when the vaccine has not yet been licensed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) or Mexican health authorities.

Manufacturers of the Russian vaccine filed an application last December to conduct clinical trials in Mexico.

In the European Union, only two vaccines are currently licensed: Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. The Astra-Zeneca vaccine, already in use in the United Kingdom, is expected to be licensed before the end of January.

Mexico was the first Latin American country to vaccinate against Covid-19 on December 24, followed on the same day by Chile and Costa Rica.

The U.S.-German Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was the first to be licensed as an emergency vaccine and the only one available in Mexico.

Astra-Zeneca's vaccine has already been approved, and last Wednesday the first shipment of the active ingredient, produced in Argentina and to be packaged in Mexico, arrived. It should be available in March for local use and export to other Latin American countries.

Last Friday, the government announced that the private sector would be allowed to import and sell the vaccine.

Mexico, home to 128 million people, is the fourth most affected country by the pandemic in absolute numbers. 

Some 10,872 new cases of infection were recorded on Sunday, for a total of 1,763,219, and nearly 150,000 people have already died from the virus.

Source: AFP