Mexico hails US relationship after vaccine agreement
US government to procure 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico
MEXICO
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Friday praised the US decision to send over 2 million vaccines to Mexico, with the AstraZeneca vaccine expected next week.
Lopez Obrador said that he had previously asked his US counterpart Joe Biden for vaccines back in January and once again in March when the two world leaders held a virtual meeting to discuss migration and health efforts against the pandemic.
"I especially thank President Biden," said the president. "I reminded him of the subject again in the last conversation we had a month ago, and it was agreed that the subject would be discussed, and fortunately, they are going to send us next week.
"I estimate that we are going to have those vaccines," he said at a press conference. He said the number of the vaccines was 2.7 million.
Biden administration on Thursday confirmed that it would transfer 4 million AstraZeneca vaccines to its neighbors Mexico (2.5 million) and Canada (1.5 million).
"What are we going to give in return? What we have always given, friendship and cooperation in all orders, it is very important that we maintain a good relationship with the United States government," he added.
On Thursday, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard explained that the plan is to prioritize elderly citizens who had taken an initial dose of the vaccine back in February, with the intent to use the US vaccines to completely inoculate 870,000 senior adults.
While the country has seen a slight recovery from a surging wave of cases and hospitalizations that overflew most of the COVID-19 hospitals in the country, vaccination efforts seem to fall short, with the implementation of vaccines proving slow.
Initially, health authorities in the country had forecasted that a total of 14.1 million citizens would be vaccinated by the end of March. The actual figures fall short of the initial goal, with 4,947,552 vaccines administered in the country as of Thursday.
Mexico has an estimated 2,376,875 cases and reported 196,606 deaths.
Anadolu Agency website contains only a portion of the news stories offered to subscribers in the AA News Broadcasting System (HAS), and in summarized form. Please contact us for subscription options.
