Mexico has authorized the emergency use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, health officials said.
On Thursday, the country’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks said it authorized the J&J jab for emergency use following a unanimous favourable opinion by experts, the DPA news agency reported.
“Starting from today Mexico has one more Covid-19 vaccine option,” Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard tweeted.
ALSO READ: Pfizer says vaccine highly effective against Indian covid strain, puts condition of indemnity
“It is always good news to have more approvals for safe and effective vaccines of good quality,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell tweeted.
Vaccines developed by AstraZeneca, Pfizer, the Russian-made Sputnik V, India’s Covaxin and the jabs developed by Chinese companies CanSino and Sinovac have previously been authorized by Cofepris.
Also on Thursday, Mexico received 2.2 million AstraZeneca doses through the COVAX vaccination equity program as well as 585 million doses of Pfizer, the Health Ministry said.
Mexico was the first country in Latin America to start its vaccination campaign last December.
So far 28.5 million jabs have been administered, with 20 million people have received at least one dose of vaccine out of a population of some 127 million.
With 221,963 fatalities, Mexico has the fourth-highest Covid death toll in the world, after the US, Brazil, and India.
ALSO READ: Govt to give 11L vaccine doses to states/UTs in next 3 days
It passed the grim milestone of 200,000 officially reported deaths in late March.
The country has recorded more than 2.5 million cases since the pandemic began.
SOURCE-IANS
