Lack of quality certificates delays the application of the Sinovac vaccine in Mexico

The shipment of 800,000 doses of Sinovac for Mexico, on February 27. Mario Jasso / CUARTOSCURO

The last batch of 800,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine, the third largest that Mexico has received, has been stored in a warehouse for almost a week due to the lack of the necessary certificates to begin distribution.

The delay, recognized this Friday by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, occurred after the Chinese manufacturer prioritized the shipment to comply with the contract, despite the fact that sending them without the documents caused Mexican regulators to delay their application.

Marcelo Ebrard, head of Foreign Affairs, announced a couple of hours later that the missing paperwork is already in place and that the distribution will begin this weekend.

The president has ruled out that the delays put the vaccines, received last Saturday, at risk, and added that the reception without the quality certificates was thus agreed with the Chinese laboratory.

"16 approvals are required that have to do with the quality of the vaccine and the Government of China," said the president, who has ensured that the pharmaceutical company has complied with all quality protocols in its production chain.

"It was agreed not to apply them, but they were the ones who suggested this, they sent us eight of the 16 positive tests," he said.

Although the sending of the missing documents was scheduled for this Saturday, Ebrard already uploaded a capture of the quality certificate to his social networks.

The analysis presented by Sinovac shows that the drug passed the sterility and dosage tests, and that it meets the specifications of China.

The vaccine, which uses an inactivated version of the coronavirus for immunization, does not expire until 2024 if it is kept in storage under proper conditions.

Birmex, the state company dedicated to the production and distribution of vaccines in the country, has been in charge of the safeguard.

If the tests did not pass, one possibility was that the vials would have to return to Asia.

The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks has the final decision on the results and their application in Mexico.

The first 200,000 doses of Coronavac, the commercial name of the antigen, began to be applied two weeks ago in Ecatepec, a municipality on the outskirts of Mexico City that was chosen for mass vaccination due to the high mortality left by the pandemic and for bringing together the largest number of people living in poverty and extreme poverty in the country, among other criteria.

The country has a contract for a total of 10 million doses with Sinovac, has already received two million and expects to receive another three million in March, according to the latest estimate by the authorities.

It is a two-application vaccine, with the advantage that it does not need a deep-freezing network like Pfizer's, although with more doubts about its effectiveness: in clinical trials in Brazil it barely exceeded the 50% required by the World Organization for Health.

In Turkey, on the other hand, its effectiveness was higher than 91%.

The data changes as more information becomes available about clinical trials and the people who have received it.

López Obrador has also said in his morning conference that Hugo López-Gatell, the government spokesman for the pandemic, is close to receiving a medical discharge after announcing that he had been infected on February 20.

Authorities have given conflicting information about López-Gatell's health and the treatments he has undergone.

After several corrections, it is known that the undersecretary received supplemental oxygenation and went to the Citibanamex center, a field hospital against covid, to receive an antiretroviral as treatment.

His team has insisted that he is out of harm's way.

"He is on his way out," said the president.

Delays in the implementation of Sinovac have also changed plans to move forward with the vaccination strategy.

"The new Sinovac vaccines that arrived this week will no longer touch us, we are going to apply the Pfizer vaccine," said Claudia Sheinbaum, the head of Government of Mexico City.

The capital is the area of ​​the country most populated and affected by the pandemic in the country, and it was planned that this Friday will be defined which will be the next mayor's offices where the vaccine will be applied.

Sheinbaum has explained that the announcement will be this Saturday.

Three entities ―Magdalena Contreras, Cuajimalpa and Milpa Alta― have already applied the AstraZeneca vaccine and another three ―Xochimilco, Tláhuac and Iztacalco― have begun to administer Sputnik V. The country has received almost 4.7 million doses against covid-19 and it has applied almost 2.7 million to about two million inhabitants, according to official data.

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