Mexico’s Deputy Health Minister Hugo López Gatell, announced in the president’s Dec. 8 morning conference that the coverage goal for the mass vaccination plan against COVID-19 is to vaccinate at least 75 percent of the population aged 16 and over by the end of 2021. 

The Pfizer laboratory vaccine has been chosen for the first stage of vaccination. Although 250,000 thousand doses will arrive, the Pfizer vaccine requires a double dose for which a total of 125,000 applications are expected.

Gatell explained that the vaccine will be applied first to health workers and armed forces personnel, then to people aged 80 and over, followed by those 70 and over, 60 and over, 50 and over, and will conclude with the population under 40 years of age.

The first stage of the vaccination campaign will be assisted by the armed forces and is expected to take place from December 2020 to February 2021.

The vaccine developed by Pfizer is the one arriving in December and is approved for distribution; however, Mexico signed a contract to acquire 35 million doses of the CanSinoBio vaccine in addition to the 77.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that have been pre-purchased, highlighted the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard.

“Vaccination opens a horizon for the management of the pandemic in Mexico and in the world…Vaccination is not a one-day action,” explained Gatell.

On his end, Mexico’s Secretary of Health Jorge Alcocer said, “The government of Mexico guarantees that the vaccine being distributed and applied complies with all the tests and characteristics necessary to protect the life and safety of all people.”

Sources: Federal Government, Mexico Department of Health