Mexico City, Jan. 5, (dpa/GNA) – Mexico has granted emergency approval to the AstraZeneca/Oxford coronavirus vaccine, a Health Ministry official said, making it the second vaccine to get the go-ahead after the Pfizer/BioNTech jab.
On December 24, Mexico became the first country in Latin America to start vaccinations against Covid-19 – with doses from the vaccine produced by Germany-based BioNTech and US pharma giant Pfizer.
Almost 44,000 people have received the vaccine so far in Mexico, according to government figures.
Mexico has more than 1.4 million confirmed coronavirus cases and nearly 128,000 related deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Britain, which was the first country to approve the AstraZeneca/Oxford jab, began vaccinating people with it on Monday.
In Latin America, Argentina and El Salvador have also already approved the vaccine. It is currently under review by European regulatory authorities.
The vaccine from the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has shown slightly lower efficacy than the Pfizer/BioNTech preparation, but can be stored at higher temperatures and is cheaper. It is currently under review by European regulatory authorities.
GNA