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María Irene Ramírez receives the first injection with a dose of the Pfizer / BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the General Hospital, while the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, in Mexico City, Mexico December 24, 2020. REUTERS / Edgard Garrido
MEXICO CITY – Mexico on Thursday inoculated its first person against COVID-19 to begin a fight against a pandemic that has killed 120,000 people in the country and hit the economy, celebrating a Christmas unfolding that also began in other parts of Latin America.
In a ceremony broadcast by national media and seen by the president, officials directed the administration of the Pfizer vaccine to nurse María Irene Ramírez, 59, head of nursing at the intensive care unit at Rubén Lenero hospital in the City of Mexico.
“This is the best gift I could have received in 2020,” Ramírez said, adding that it would give him strength to continue the “war” against the pandemic.
Subsequently, the government transmitted the vaccine that was being administered to medical personnel in other parts of Mexico.
Pfizer’s is the first COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Mexico, which has also signed agreements for vaccines from other firms.
Chile received the first 10,000 doses of a 10 million order of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on Thursday, and inoculations from healthcare workers should begin immediately.
In Costa Rica, health workers administered the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine to a couple of elderly people in a house near the capital San José, while some 300,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine reached Argentina.
“My message is that everyone should get vaccinated,” said Jorge De Ford, a 72-year-old former university professor who was one of the first two in Costa Rica to receive the injection.
No COVID-19 vaccine has yet been approved for use in Brazil, the most populous country in Latin America.
Medical staff expect to receive the first of two injections with a dose of the Pfizer / BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at the General Hospital, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak continues, in Mexico City, Mexico, December 24, 2020. REUTERS / Edgard Garrido
In Mexico, the first shipment from Pfizer arrived on Wednesday containing just 3,000 doses of the vaccine. The next one will contain 50,000 doses, and Mexico is expected to receive 1.4 million units of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine by January 31.
“And so the road to the end of the pandemic begins,” Martha Delgado, a deputy foreign minister in charge of ensuring the supply of vaccines for Mexico, said on Twitter.
The implementation of the vaccine is expected to last for months and will initially give priority to Mexican medical personnel. A September report by Amnesty International found that Mexico had lost more healthcare workers to the virus than any other country.
Mexican infections and deaths are on the rise, putting hospitals under immense pressure and prompting new closures in Mexico City and its urban sprawl last week.
A study by the CIDE research group at Stanford University-Mexico found that Mexico City could exceed its hospital capacity in late December and peak in late January.
More than 1.35 million cases and 120,300 deaths from coronavirus have been reported in Mexico, which has the fourth highest official number of deaths from COVID-19 worldwide. The government acknowledges that the actual numbers are likely to be significantly higher.
EDV
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