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Mexico to start Covid-19 vaccination on Thursday

WION Web Team
Mexico City, MexicoUpdated: Dec 23, 2020, 10:11 AM IST
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FILE Photograph:(Reuters)

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Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday on Twitter: "Tomorrow (Wednesday) the first consignment of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 arrives."

Mexico will begin Covid-19 immunisation on Thursday, a day after the country receives its first batch of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday on Twitter: "Tomorrow (Wednesday) the first consignment of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 arrives."

"There will be a press opportunity and then the vaccine will be safeguarded until its use on Thursday, December 24, the day vaccinations start," he added.

Mexico's health regulator granted emergency authorisation to the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on December 12.

The first batch of 250,000 doses will immunise 125,000 people, since the vaccine requires two shots. 

Medical staff battling on the front lines of the pandemic will be the first priority of the immunisation programme, and doses will be administered only in Mexico City and in the northern state of Coahuila, due to the specialist deep freeze and logistics requirements of the vaccine. 

Mexico had signed an agreement to purchase 34.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine.