Vaccines to Reach all States/ AstraZeneca’s First Batch

COVID-19 vaccines to be distributed to all states. Minister of National Defense (SEDENA) Luis Cresencio Sandoval announced that the Pzifer vaccine will be distributed today in the afternoon to all states, with administration starting tomorrow. “The distribution of the vaccine to the country’s 879 COVID-19 hospitals will be completed on Jan. 13,” Cresencio said.  President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that around 90,000 vaccines have been administered and it is expected that in the next four days the number will increase to 400,000.

Elderly to be vaccinated. López Obrador said that from January to April, 15 million elderly people will receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The president explained that 120,000 people are participating in the National Vaccination Plan through 10,000 brigades, which are responsible for distributing the vaccine and providing coverage to the entire population. “Elderly people will be the second group to receive the vaccine because they are very vulnerable and it is our job to take care of them,” López Obrador said.

Mexico could authorize the Sputnik V vaccine. Deputy Minister of Health Hugo López-Gatell said Mexican authorities are analyzing the authorization of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. “It is a vaccine with a capacity and efficacy similar to other vaccines that are being administered in Mexico,” López-Gatell said. He added that the vaccine file is already being reviewed by COFEPRIS, which could soon authorize its use.

The first vaccine batch from AstraZeneca arrives today. López-Gatell announced that the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine will arrive in the country in a few hours; however, it won’t be administered until March. “The epidemic will continue in 2021; however, the arrival of several vaccines allows us to improve our health security and reduce our risks of contagion,” he said.

People who applied favoritism in vaccine administration will receive a second dose. López-Gatell said that people who received the COVID-19 vaccine out of turn will still receive a second dose. “The idea that they should not receive a second dose doesn’t make sense. We would be wasting the second dose and it would be arbitrary because we would be exercising justice in a health matter, which is not only technically inappropriate but inadmissible,” López-Gatell said.  

No mobility restrictions. López-Gatell said that mobility restrictions would not be implemented due to the new variant of COVID-19. “It is possible that this variant will spread throughout the world; however, we cannot restrict mobility,” he said. López-Gatell emphasized that the new variant has greater transmissibility but it doesn’t represent an additional risk to the pandemic itself.

Censorship in Mexico? López Obrador said that censorship is now a global trend after the National Electoral Institute (INE) said that the morning conferences should be suspended before the 2021 elections.  "They want to silence us and it is really an attitude of intolerance, which we must fight," the president said.

Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish