Mexico granted emergency authorization for the Covid-19 vaccine developed by the British laboratory AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford on Monday, the government announced.

700 to 750,000 health workers should be vaccinated by mid-January.

Mexico's Federal Commission for the Protection of Health Risks "has authorized AstraZeneca's vaccine for emergency use against the Sars-CoV-2 virus," Hugo Lopez-Gatell, head of strategy for combating the virus, wrote on Twitter. the epidemic within the Mexican government.

He said the vaccine could be available from March.

"It depends on whether the private entities working there materialize the production capacity," he explained later at a press conference.

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700,000 caregivers vaccinated by mid-January

The UK, Argentina and India had previously given the green light to this vaccine.

The UK began administering it to its people on Monday.

Mexico launched its vaccination campaign on December 24 with the product manufactured by the Pfizer-BioNTech alliance.

Some 30,000 caregivers have received an injection as of last Sunday, according to the government.

President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador said 700,000 to 750,000 health workers would be vaccinated by mid-January.

Several signed agreements

Mexico has reached an agreement with the Mexican magnate Carlos Slim Foundation, the AstraZeneca laboratory and the University of Oxford for the production of the vaccine in its territory and in Argentina, as well as its nonprofit distribution in Latin America, to except Brazil.

It provides for the acquisition by Mexico of 77.4 million doses.

The Mexican government has signed agreements totaling $ 1.659 billion with different laboratories for the purchase of some 200 million doses that will vaccinate, free of charge, up to 116 million Mexicans between 2020 and 2021, according to the Ministry of Finance.

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Mexico, which has 128 million inhabitants, is the fourth country most bereaved by the pandemic, with 127,757 deaths and 1.4 million infected, according to official figures reported until Monday.