Mexico Ships 400,000 AstraZeneca Vaccines to Latin America and the Caribbean

The government of Mexico began sending Latin America and the Caribbean More than 400,000 vaccines against COVID-19 by AstraZeneca. Belize, Bolivia and Paraguay will be the first countries to receive these doses that have been packaged in Mexican laboratories. “Today begins, with the support of the Mexican Air Force, the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccines provided by Mexico, in its capacity as CELAC President, to the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced via his Twitter account. Thousands of doses will also be sent to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in the coming days.

Martha Delgado, Under Secretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights in External Relations, stated that Bolivia and Paraguay will receive 150,000 vaccines each and Belize will receive 100,000 doses. We are convinced that solidarity within the region must prevail in times of great crisis. “After conducting comprehensive consultations with countries in the region to determine their immediate needs, we hope to be able to prepare more shipments for other countries in the near future,” the official said.

The Ministry of Foreign Relations stated in writing that the doses were packed at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees and would be flown on Mexican Air Force planes to Belize, where they would be delivered by Under Secretary for Latin America and the Caribbean Maximiliano. Reyes, accompanied by General Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, Martin Borrego.

Another flight will take off to La Paz, Bolivia, where Under Secretary Martha Delgado will make a corresponding delivery to the Bolivian authorities on Sunday afternoon, and finally, Efraín Guadarama, CELAC coordinator, will deliver the doses in Asuncion, Paraguay. Sunday the 14th, this is with Birmex staff. Via his Twitter account, Paraguayan President Mario Abdo thanked the Mexican government for its cooperation.

As part of the collaborative project between Mexico and Argentina to distribute vaccines this Saturday, 800,000 doses of AstraZeneca will also be sent to the city of Buenos Aires. Last May, with a three-month delay, shipments of AstraZeneca vaccines began between Mexico and Argentina. A binational plan began distributing 1.6 million doses produced in the South American country and packing them in Mexico. The initiative started appearing in August 2020 Thanks to an agreement, with the support of the Carlos Slim Foundation, to distribute the Oxford-AstraZeneca treatment in Latin America. The goal is to reach 250 million doses, of which the active ingredient is manufactured in Argentina by the biotech company mAbxience, owned by entrepreneur Hugo Sigman, and packaged in a plant in Liomont Laboratories in Mexico.

The countries planned to start distributing these vaccines in the region last March, although the plan was finally postponed, such as immunization campaigns across the region. The Executive in Lopez Obrador, with a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council, He led a protest in front of the United Nations at the beginning of the year By hoarding medicines by most developed countries.

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