The United States plans to donate 3.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Mexico, sources with knowledge of the matter told
Bloomberg
and the
Reuters
news
agency
.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the vice president of the United States, Kamala Harris, held a phone call this Wednesday afternoon to discuss precisely the shipment of the doses, illegal immigration
and the possible reopening of the border
.
AMLO, as the Mexican president is known by the initials of his name, tweeted this Monday night that the meeting with Harris had been "for the better."
However, he did not offer more details about the conversation, explaining that he would provide more information on Tuesday morning.
The Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, Marcelo Ebrard, who heads the negotiations on the migration issue and international agreements to obtain vaccines against the coronavirus, reported that he had been present at the call.
The doses of the vaccines that will arrive in Mexico to reinforce the fight against the coronavirus pandemic
come from the pharmaceutical companies AstraZeneca and Moderna
, according to the sources cited.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the shipment of AstraZeneca's vaccine after determining that Emergent's manufacturing facility in Baltimore, Maryland, met quality standards for export, despite the fact that its use has not yet been approved in the United States: AstraZeneca is expected to seek authorization for emergency use in the coming months.
["It's frightening". Children's hospitals are filling up due to the increase in COVID-19 cases among children]
Mexican and US authorities
are
also
working on legal procedures to be able to import the Moderna doses to Mexico
, where it has not yet been approved due to delays in documentation, according to López Obrador.
AMLO thanked the "support" of the US government by donating to Mexico 1.35 million vaccines against COVID-19 that were used in border municipalities "so that we can fully open the border."
EFE
Reopening the border amid a new wave of COVID-19?
The talks between López Obrador and Harris, who visited Mexico in June to discuss immigration, come as COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed in the two countries.
With an average of almost 17,000 new cases and more than 480 deaths from coronavirus a day in the last week, Mexico is going through a third wave of infections.
While the United States averages about 100,000 new infections per day, something not seen since last winter.
López Obrador had explained at a press conference in the morning the importance for his Government of
resuming border travel for non-essential activities, after more than a year of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kamala Harris assures that “USA.
it must be a sanctuary ”for migrants
June 10, 202101: 49
"Today in the afternoon I have a call with Vice President Kamala Harris, we are going to give continuity to the agenda we have in common on migration issues and, of course, the issue of opening the border," the Mexican president had advanced in a wheel press from the Ciudad Juárez border in Chihuahua.
López Obrador explained this Monday morning that
Mexico had accelerated vaccination in the municipalities that border the United States
to convince the White House to reopen the border, closed to non-essential travel since March 2020, but it has not been reached an agreement in the wake of the spread of the delta variant.
[Vice President Kamala Harris travels to the border for the first time after criticizing her handling of the migration crisis]
Mexico reported this Monday that it has vaccinated,
at least with one dose, 85.7% of the elderly in the 45 municipalities bordering the United States
.
"It must be said that the border is open, not completely, but it has never been completely closed. However, we need to open the border and that is an issue that we are going to discuss today," added López Orador.
The president said that the total reopening would depend in large part on today's talks, although he also stressed that there is "a rebound in infections" both in Mexico and in neighboring states, such as Texas, which make opening difficult.
[Vice President Kamala Harris presents strategy against illegal immigration]
"This is the only thing that could prevent the border from opening, however, and it is what I am going to propose, it can be shown that the population, workers, companies are not put at risk," he said.
The Mexican president added that he has a "relationship of respect and collaboration" with the US president, Joe Biden, just as he had with his predecessor, Donald Trump.
