Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica began administering the first Covid-19 vaccines in Latin America on Thursday, as the region hardest hit by the disease seeks to alleviate the pandemic.
The first injection was broadcast live from a hospital in Mexico and was shown during the daily press session of President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador. It was administered to the head nurse of an ICU unit of the General Hospital of Mexico City. In Chile, the government selected five health workers for vaccination, which was also televised. Costa Rica also began its vaccination campaign on Thursday. All three show up Shots from Pfizer Inc.
Vaccine arrivals offer some light hope to a region particularly devastated by the virus. Brazil has the second highest number of deaths in the world from this virus, with Mexico in fourth place. Mexico’s mortality rate is also one of the highest in the world. Hospital occupancy in Mexico City has reached 85%, and a study says there may be health services boring soon.
“Mexico is the first Latin American country to have this vaccine,” the Mexican president said at the press conference. “Pfizer is living up to its commitment.”
Vaccine push
The economies of Chile and Mexico will win with full vaccine coverage
Source: Bloomberg
Virus monitoring: 78.8 million global cases; Deaths 1.73 million
The Mexican government plans to vaccinate about 3,000 people Thursday in what authorities call a trial. Pfizer is expected to ship 50,000 more doses to Mexico next week.
In Chile, a plane arrived Thursday morning with the first 10,000 doses in the country. During a press conference, President Sebastian Pinera said that the country intends to vaccinate the majority of health personnel and citizens at risk (about 5 million people) in the first quarter of 2021.
A nurse receives the coronavirus vaccine at the Metropolitan Hospital of Santiago, Chile, on December 24.
Source: Ministry of Health of Chile / Getty Images
Brazil, the Latin American country with the highest number of Covid-19 cases, has lagged behind in the region’s race to inoculate the population. The push for injections has been hampered by political struggles and setbacks in the chronology of the locally produced Coronavac vaccine.
The oldest date published so far for vaccinations in Latin America’s largest economy is January 25, only for the state of Sao Paulo. The country’s Supreme Court has also ruled that Brazilians can receive a warrant to take the vaccine.
Read more: The Supreme Court of Brazil rules against the Covid Anti-Vashxers
Although Latin American countries have lagged behind developed countries in their vaccine deployment programs, the United States has already managed it. more than a million doses: Mexico and Chile have them got more doses of the virus than anyone in the region.
On Thursday afternoon, 300,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V also arrived in Argentina. President Alberto Fernandez thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday afternoon in a post on social media for the “commitment” he had shown to the Argentina and said the shipment will launch the largest vaccination campaign in the country’s history.
– With the assistance of Valentina Fuentes and Michael D McDonald
(Updates with details of Argentina’s vaccination plans in the final paragraph.)