COVID-19 Vaccines Arrive to Mexico, Rollout Begins Immediately

The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Mexico, and first line health workers have already been vaccinated. In other news, Mexico City’s lockdown might have begun too late. Read this and more in the weekly Health Roundup!

Mexico

COVID-19 Vaccine Arrives to Mexico

A plane carrying the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine touched down in Mexico, bringing optimism to a nation that has suffered one of the world’s heaviest death tolls at the hands of the virus. The plane arrived at Mexico City shortly after 9 AM, coming from Puurs, the north-eastern region of Belgium where the Pfizer plant producing the vaccine is located, after a stop in Cincinnati, reported El Universal.

It was met by Mexico’s COVID-19 tzar, Deputy Minister of Health Hugo Lopez-Gatell and Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard. At yesterday’s mañanera, Ebrard told the press that today’s shipment would be the first of many as the country begins its vaccination campaign this month. “Between tomorrow and January 31, Mexico will receive 1,417,659 doses. The next shipment will be next Tuesday,” he said.

COVID-19 Vaccine Plan has Been Set in Motion, Rollout Begins

Mexico’s government has laid out a COVID-19 vaccine plan that includes five stages with the first one set to start this week. President López Obrador said that due to logistics reasons the COVID-19 vaccine will arrive first in Mexico City and Coahuila and medical personnel will be vaccinated first in COVID hospitals, reported Reuters.

Was Mexico City’s Lockdown Enforced Too Late?

Mexico City’s government announced that the city would go back to ‘red light’ and lock down once again in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19. A report from the New York Times (NYT) argues that this decision was taken too late and the city’s government ignored the government's health protocols and standards. As a result of a late lockdown, hospitalizations are spiking drastically in January and ventilator capacity is dwindling.

International

US Vaccine Rollout Slower than Expected

Even though the US government set its goal for 20 million vaccinations by the end of December 2020, Reuters reports that a slow rollout is making the achievement an unlikely one. Millions of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are kept in storage as per yesterday, only 1 million had been administered.

Brexit Poses Risk to UK Health and Care Sector: Nuffield Trust

Based on Nuffield Trust’s report, Disruption to medicine supply chains and barriers to science investment will hit the UK health sector, despite extensive planning ahead from the government and its national health service.