The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, during a call with the US Vice President Kamala Harris, on June 3. PRESIDENCY OF MEXICO / Reuters
The 1 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines that the US will ship to Mexico will be distributed along the northern border.
This was announced this Friday by the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in his morning conference.
The single-dose drug will be distributed to inhabitants between the ages of 18 and 40 in the 39 municipalities along the border with the idea that this will accelerate economic reactivation and trade between the two countries.
"The purpose is for vaccination in Mexico to advance to similar proportions to those in the United States," said Marcelo Ebrard, Secretary of Foreign Relations.
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The commitment to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as the key to reopening the United States border has been an instruction from the president, who has released "a special vaccination plan for the northern border." “We think that with this there would already be all the sanitary conditions so that the United States can agree to the resumption of activities, if not all, for the most part, so that the economic, commercial and personal effects that have occurred in the area are not maintained. border that has been very serious because we have been here for more than a year, ”said Ebrard about the partial closure of the world's busiest border and the vaccination campaign for people of productive age. Six states will benefit: Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.
The shipment of the vaccine from Janssen, the Johnson & Johnson affiliate in charge of distribution, will be enough to cover about a third of the border inhabitants in that age group. The Mexican government will have to get another 1.9 million doses, either with a purchase contract negotiated with the US pharmaceutical company or through a new donation from the Joe Biden Administration, which said Thursday that it will deliver six million vaccines. to a dozen Latin American countries during June.
"It confirms that our relationship is good, this is an approach that we have been doing, that we must act with solidarity and we all have to help each other," said the Mexican president.
López Obrador advanced the announcement of the arrival of vaccines to the country moments before the White House made it official, after holding a phone call with the US Vice President, Kamala Harris.
The authorities have not yet said when these doses will begin to be applied, an issue that will be refined after Harris' visit on June 8.
Johnson & Johnson will be the sixth vaccine to be administered in Mexico, but only the second that requires a single dose.
That is the main advantage from the perspective of the López Obrador government, in addition to the fact that it does not need a deep-freezing network for its distribution.
Although it was one of the first coronavirus vaccines to be offered, the government opted for other options at the time: AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sputnik V, CanSino and Sinovac. There are around 250 agreed doses in total and until a few days ago the position of the health authorities was that it was not necessary to look for new purchase contracts. Following its authorization for emergency use last week, the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine now proposes that almost two million doses will be needed that had not been contemplated.
Another factor that can lead to the purchase of more vaccines, not necessarily from Janssen, is that they want to reinforce vaccination in tourist areas. Quintana Roo - which concentrates destinations such as Cancun, Tulum and the Riviera Maya - is the region with the highest alert status due to the pandemic, with five weeks of upturn in cases and the fear of facing a new peak in the pandemic. Baja California Sur, which is home to Los Cabos, is in a similar situation, albeit lower risk, according to reports on the advance of the virus. In the Caribbean, the state government negotiates with federal authorities that tourism workers be considered a priority group for immunizations.
This month is emerging as one of the most important in terms of vaccines because it seeks to have around 25 million doses.
So far Mexico has received around 40 million antigens and given almost 33 million injections.
The objective is to advance in the vaccination of people between 40 and 49 years old, and to cover the entire adult population by October.
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