MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico has signed an agreement with Pfizer to acquire 34.4 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, the country’s health ministry announced on Wednesday.
Mexico expects to receive 250,000 doses in the month of December and will prioritize vaccinating health care workers, the ministry said in a tweet showing Health Minister Jorge Alcocer signing a document.
“What many assumed impossible is now a reality: vaccination is about to start in December 2020,” Mexico’s foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard said in a tweet earlier on Wednesday.
The United Kingdom approved Pfizer’s vaccine on Wednesday, jumping ahead of the rest of the world in the race to begin vaccination.
In Mexico, Pfizer submitted the details about its vaccine to the country’s health regulator, Cofepris, last month and is still awaiting approval.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in his regular morning news conference on Wednesday that Cofepris would work “day and night” to grant vaccine approval “as fast as possible.”
(Reporting by Miguel Gutierrez and Sharay Angulo, writing by Laura Gottesdiener; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
