Amid COVID, a somber Day of the Dead in Mexico
Questions over availability
The government plans to have all medical staff tending to COVID-19 patients vaccinated by February 2021. By April, it wants to have have all remaining health care workers, along with Mexicans aged 60 and over, vaccinated. By May, Mexicans above the age of 50 will be vaccinated, followed by those over 40 in June. The goal is to vaccinate everyone else by March 2022. President Lopez Obrador has promised the shot will be free of charge.
It is unclear, however, whether and when sufficient quantities of the vaccine will become available for all 126 million Mexicans. The country has agreed to buy at least 7 million vaccine doses from Pfizer, though it remains uncertain when they will be delivered. Mexico has also agreed to buy 35 million doses from Chinese company CanSino, which is already testing its vaccine candidate on 6,000 Mexican volunteers. So far, however, the vaccine has not yet been approved in Mexico