(CNN Spanish) -
Mexico announced this Friday that the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris) authorized the emergency use of the vaccine against covid-19 developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
"The New Molecules Committee met on December 11, 2020, where its 24 members voted and issued a favorable opinion, unanimously, for its emergency use" and to be "used in the National Policy on vaccination against the SARS virus -CoV-2 ”and the prevention of covid-19.
FDA Authorizes Emergency Use of Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine
Cofepris had been evaluating the emergency use of this vaccine since November 26.
With this announcement, Mexico is the seventh country to authorize the emergency use of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine along with the United Kingdom, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Canada and the United States.
The undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion of Mexico, Hugo López-Gatell, said shortly after the Cofepris decision was announced that "this is, of course, cause for hope and tranquility."
Until this Friday, Mexico had confirmed 1,229,379 COVID-19 infections, 113,019 deaths and 904,042 people recovered.
The death toll is the fourth highest in the world, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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