December 24, 2020
MEXICO
Mexico on Thursday began administering the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a day after receiving its first shipment.
En el Hospital General de México atestiguamos con la jefa de Gobierno, @Claudiashein, la aplicación de la primera vacuna. Simultáneamente se vacunó a personal de salud en Querétaro y en Toluca, Estado de México. 2/2
Maria Irene Ramirez, a 59-year-old nurse working at the General Hospital of Mexico City; Maria del Rosario Lora Lopez, a nurse at COVID-19 hospital in the city of Queretaro; and Daniel Diaz Dominguez, a surgeon at a military hospital in the city of Toluca, became the first Mexicans to get the Pfizer’s vaccine.
By Yucatan Times on December 12, 2020
Share In Mexico, vaccination against COVID-19 will be free and universal. The immunization process will be in five stages, with priority given to health workers and the elderly. - Mexico Ministry of Health
Mexico City – President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Tuesday led the presentation of the National Vaccination Policy against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
“The vaccine will be given universally and free of charge because it is the right of all. In the first stage, from December 2020 to February 2021, it will be administered to health care professionals who care for people who are sick with COVID-19 and to older adults,” he said.
Mexico has become the fourth country to approve the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
“Mexico is the fourth country whose health agency, Cofepris, has given authorisation for emergency use of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine,” deputy health minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell told a news conference on Friday. “This is a source of hope and tranquillity.”
The United Kingdom, Bahrain and Canada have already approved the vaccine, while the United State’s Food and Drug Administration also authorised its emergency use late on Friday.
Earlier this week, the Mexican government announced it would begin a vaccination drive against the coronavirus by the end of this month. It ordered the first batch of 250,000 doses to immunise 125,000 people, since the vaccine requires two shots.
Science s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation
There s hardly a Mexican who doesn t know Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez by now. Mexico s undersecretary of prevention and health promotion has sat across from reporters at 7 p.m. sharp almost every single night since late February to update them, and the country, on the toll of the coronavirus pandemic. His firm demeanor, careful speech, and courteous personality have made his televised coronavirus press briefings even more popular than those of the country s president.
But as COVID-19 deaths in Mexico continue to soar surpassed only by the United States, Brazil, and India many have questioned López-Gatell Ramírez s leadership. Critics accuse him of undercounting the true numbers and mishandling the nation s response. In early August, the governors of nine Mexican states demanded his resignation. His defenders, though, say he s making sound decisions based on science and doing the bes