In the early hours of Thursday morning, a plane carrying enough active ingredient to produce two million doses of China’s CanSino Biologics Covid-19 vaccine touched down at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City.
Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who was on hand to welcome the shipment, hailed the delivery as a positive step for Mexico’s vaccination program and thanked China profusely for its support.
The news of the shipment came as a relief for the federal government amid questions about why the national inoculation program has ground to a virtual halt. As more than 1.5 million people in the United States were receiving jabs on Wednesday, just over 2,000 vaccine doses were administered in Mexico.
While some have blamed the federal government for its failure to procure opportune deals from vaccine producers ahead of time, the recent decision by Pfizer to delay scheduled shipments from its plant in Belgium has not only impacted Mexico’s vaccination rollout, but that of many other countries, including Canada. This has not affected the rhythm of vaccinations in the United States, however, since Pfizer’s Covid vaccines produced at the company’s U.S. plants are for domestic distribution only.
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