Mexico received 1.5 million vaccines against COVID-19 from AstraZeneca on Sunday at Mexico City International Airport (AICM) on a flight from Chicago.
The Mexican government expects to receive a total of 2.7 million from the US Administration.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked Biden in his virtual meeting on March 1 to access the AstraZeneca reserve stored in the United States, which
does not yet endorse the use of this drug and prohibits the export of COVID-19 vaccines produced in its territory
.
Both governments announced an agreement 10 days ago, amid increasing pressure from the United States to control the migratory flow in southern Mexico, although it has not been officially recognized that there is a relationship between the loan of vaccines and migration policy.
[Social networks punish Nicolás Maduro after promoting false "miracle drops" against COVID-19]
Mexico was one of the first countries to start vaccination against COVID-19, on December 24, but due to delays in deliveries it has only applied 6.85 million doses, with 825,185 people who have received complete immunization schedules, according to data officers.
"Mexico thanks the Government of President (Joe) Biden for authorizing AstraZeneca to send 2.7 million doses of vaccines manufactured by that company to our country,"
said Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
"It is a very significant endorsement at a critical moment that accounts for the close cooperation of both nations," argued this Sunday Ebrard, head of the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE) of Mexico.
[Most people in the United States approve of Biden's management in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey]
At the reception of the lot were Martha Delgado, undersecretary of multilateral affairs, and Roberto Velasco, general director for North America of the SRE, as well as John Creamer, charge d'affaires of the United States Embassy in Mexico.
The SRE indicated that with this shipment Mexico has obtained more than 12.3 million doses of various vaccines against COVID-19, of which four million arrived in the country or were packaged in it during the last week.
Containers with AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City, March 28, 2021. Alfredo Estrella / AFP via Getty Images
Mexico had already received in February 870,000 units of AstraZeneca produced by the Serum Institute of India as part of its agreement for a total of 79.4 million with the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical company.
Although Mexico has an agreement to package AstraZeneca vaccines in the center of the country, the plant is delayed by procedures from the Federal Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris).
The North American country has also received, so far, 4.5 million units from the American Pfizer, four million from the Chinese Sinovac, 400,000 from the Russian Sputnik V and just over a million from the also Chinese CanSino, which is packaged in a plant from the central state of Querétaro.
[The former director of the CDC during Trump's term assures that the coronavirus accidentally escaped from a Chinese laboratory]
President López Obrador has opted for early access to the vaccine to combat the coronavirus pandemic, which accumulates
more than 2.2 million cases and almost 200,000 confirmed deaths in Mexico
, the third highest figure in the world, according to data from NBC News, Telemundo's sister network.
Mexico has committed 34.4 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, 79.4 million of AstraZeneca, 35 million of CanSino, 24 million of Sputnik V, 20 million of Sinovac, 12 million of the also Chinese Sinopharm and 51.4 million of the Covax platform of the Organization World Health Organization (WHO).
With information from Efe.