XINHUA

Mexico has paid an advance of $159.8 million to guarantee the purchase of a successful vaccine against the novel coronavirus (covid-19) through the Covax initiative, Mexico’s Foreign Relations Secretariat (SRE) announced on Saturday, Oct. 10.

According to SRE, Mexico transferred the funds and presented risk guarantee documents for another $20.6 million to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which coordinates the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (Covax Facility).

The contract with the Covax Facility guarantees Mexico’s acquisition of enough vaccines for up to 20 percent of its population, SRE said in a statement.

This percentage of the population represented more than 51.5 million doses for a vaccination plan of two doses per person, and the Covax Facility currently has a portfolio of nine candidate vaccines from various countries.

The contract signed by Mexico will allow the government to choose a vaccine according to its preferences and subject to availability.

To date, Mexico has registered more than 810,000 confirmed cases and over 83,000 deaths from covid-19, according to government health authorities.

…Oct. 12, 2020