Local COVID-19 Vaccine Production Begins

Difficulties of vaccine distribution are challenging the promised panorama of a COVID-19-fee 2021. This week, the sector began experiencing logistic challenges regarding vaccine production and fair distribution. Read ahead to learn about the Week in Health!

NATIONAL

-Mexico City signed an agreement with private institutions for their doctors to offer free remote care to patients with COVID-19.

-President López Obrador announced that Mexico accepted a vaccine delivery reduction. According to his announcement, the UN called on Pfizer to redistribute their COVID-19 vaccine to less economically favored countries. On Jan. 19, Mexico was to receive 436,000 doses, a number that reduced to 196,000 doses. In addition, Mexico will stop receiving the vaccine for three weeks.

-AstraZeneca sent the APIs of its COVID-19 vaccine to Mexico to start the packaging process. The Mexican pharmaceutical company Liomont will be in charge of packaging 685,000 daily doses of the vaccine at its plant in the State of Mexico, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard. This vaccine is expected to begin distribution between March and April.

-Mexico started vaccinating medical professionals from private hospitals. Staff members to be vaccinated include doctors and nurses, workers in the area of inhalation therapy, laboratory, radiology, hospitalization, cleaning and hygiene personnel, ambulance operators, those handling food, medical assistance and social workers, as long as they are in the frontline against COVID-19. The following hospitals will be the first to receive the vaccine: Español, Escandón, Ángeles Santa Mónica, Nuevo Sanatorio Durango, HMG Hospital Coyoacán, Médica Sur and ABC Medical Center.

-Mexico’s Director for Universal Vaccination, Miriam Veras, quit. According to her statement, the decision was due to personal health reasons.

As the new President of the US, Joe Biden promised to “return” jobs in the medical devices sector to the US and to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign countries in this area. MBN reported the response to this statement from the Executive Director of AMID, Ana Riquelme. Read our full article to know where the Mexican industry stands, following Biden’s declaration.

INTERNATIONAL

-This morning, a fire was reported at the headquarters of the Serum Institute in India. In terms of volume, this is the largest facility for vaccine production in the world and where the AstraZeneca/University of Oxford vaccines where being produced.

-Pfizer announced that it will temporarily reduce vaccine deliveries to Europe and Canada. The company is expecting to upgrade its production capacity to 2 billion doses per year and to have a more sustainable production for the upcoming deliveries.

-The US rejoins WHO after President Joe Biden’s swearing-in and his signing of around 17 executive orders to kickstart his administration. The US is WHO’s largest economic contributor. Representatives of the country have announced the US will assume its financial obligations and leadership when rejoining. Additionally, the country joined the COVAX agreement for a global COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

-After entering office, Joe Biden and his health team discover that the former administration led by Donald Trump had no vaccination plan to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.