Mexico begins the distribution of the first fans of national production in the Caribbean

Marcelo Ebrard, at the fan presentation this week, courtesy

The Mexican-made VZS-20-2 fan will begin to be distributed throughout Mexico to help in the fight against covid-19. In a joint announcement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Institute of Nutrition have informed of the distribution, which will also benefit several countries in Central America and the Caribbean, including Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Saint Lucia, Suriname, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago.

Mexico has already exceeded 60,000 deaths from the disease and half a million infections. It seems that the peak of the pandemic is beginning to be left behind, although the curve is descending very slowly. This means that hospital occupancy remains high, both mild cases and patients requiring the support of an artificial respirator. The new ventilator arrives with the aim of strengthening the logistics of covid hospitals, mainly in the states. The Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, explained that the first batch of devices will travel to medical centers in Aguascalientes, Baja California, State of Mexico, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, San Luis Potosí, Sonora, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, Veracruz and Yucatan.

Ebrard has not detailed how many fans they will send out of Mexico, although he did specify that the states will distribute 51 in the first round. The Foreign Minister stressed that “Mexico sends a team because we care a lot about the luck of other countries. This is what we have demanded of the powerful, those who have more, those with more industries, more resources. We have told them, 'it has to be universal, it has to be equitable, we have to be in solidarity, we are one people, one community ”. Ebrard appeared alongside the director of the National Institute of Nutrition, David Kershenobich, who has closely followed the manufacture of the ventilator since March.

During the manufacturing and presentation process of the VZS-20-2, Kershenobich and other doctors stressed that the device works on the basis of pistons and does not require electricity, which makes it easy to use. Ebrard highlighted the short time it took to develop the fan. Now, a company from Apodaca, in Nuevo León, will be in charge of assembling the machines in series.

Kershenobich has said that “when the pandemic began, our departments of biomedical engineering and intensive care realized that we needed to develop a ventilator in Mexico that would meet these characteristics, and that is how we have ventilators today, already manufactured here in the country ”.