42,900 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Mexico.

This Saturday, December 26, 42,900 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine will arrive to Mexico City and Monterrey.

MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Friday that 42,900 additional COVID-19 vaccines from U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer were on their way to the country from Belgium.

Mexico administered its first inoculations among medical personnel the day before, after the arrival of an initial shipment of 3,000 doses of Pfizer, amid a strong spike in the Latin American nation’s epidemic.

The new vaccines are scheduled to arrive Saturday in the Mexican capital and Monterrey’s northern industrial city, Ebrard added in a message on his Twitter account.

Ya en vuelo 42 900 vacunas provenientes de la planta de Pfizer en Puurs, Bélgica. DHL a cargo del transporte y distribución. Aeropuertos de la Ciudad de México y Monterrey serán los puntos de arribo mañana. Plan de vacunación de la Secretaría de Salud sigue su curso. ??

— Marcelo Ebrard C. (@m_ebrard) December 25, 2020

“The vaccination plan of the Ministry of Health is continuing,” he said. So far, Mexico has registered 1,362,564 confirmed cases and 121,172 deaths related to the virus. The vaccination strategy against COVID-19 in Mexico began this December 24. Although the doses that will be applied in this first instance will be few, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Marcelo Ebrard, explained that the antidotes’ arrival would grow gradually and even detailed the progress of the other antidotes that are being developed around the world.

During the morning press conference, the federal official broke down the panorama regarding vaccines for the country. In the first instance, about those manufactured by Pfizer and BioNTech, he said that 3,000 doses were received “for efficiency and organization, that is, many people must be trained, refrigeration must be prepared, and distribution must be arranged with great care.

He also pointed out that “stocks cannot be held in inventory since this medicine must be kept in deep-freezing and (the Health Department) cannot have the distribution boxes too long, everything must be chronometrically organized, you have to calibrate your operation” (sic), said Ebrard.

Concerning the quantities, Ebrard announced that 50,625 would be received “first thing next Tuesday at the latest. During the following months, this same pharmacist will continue sending vaccines. According to the Health Ministry’s calculations, 1,420,575 doses are expected for January, which will be enough to cover the country’s health personnel.