More than 1 million Covid-19 vaccines were administered in Mexico on Wednesday, a single-day feat not achieved since vaccinations began last December.
President López Obrador announced Thursday that 1,061,962 people got a first or second shot of a vaccine yesterday.
México state, Mexico’s most populous state and the second most affected by the pandemic after Mexico City, led the country with more than 221,000 doses given. Mexico City ranked second with almost 103,000 shots followed by Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Tabasco and Jalisco.
López Obrador said the progress in the government’s vaccine rollout will help to stop a third wave of the coronavirus.
“We’re doing very well. The vaccination of those aged 50–59 with a first dose ends this week,” he said, adding that “if we continue as we are,” all adults will have been offered at least one shot of a vaccine by the end of October.
“… We’re going to have additional vaccines … in order to meet the commitment to conclude [the vaccination of adults] in October,” López Obrador said.
The president said in a Twitter post later on Thursday morning that he had spoken to United States Vice President Kamala Harris, who informed him that the U.S. would send 1 million single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines to Mexico.
About 31.8 million doses have already been administered, according to the latest Health Ministry data. Those shots went to health workers, seniors, teachers, pregnant women, people over 50 and those in the 40–49 age bracket, for whom vaccinations began this week.
The pace at which vaccines are being given has increased in recent weeks as more doses have arrived in the country. Some 3.45 million doses were administered last week, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Wednesday, and 2 million per week were administered during a period of several weeks prior.
More than 816,000 doses were given on Tuesday, setting a new single-day record that was promptly broken by yesterday’s high-water mark.
“We’re vaccinating faster and faster. … The [vaccination] program is increasingly more efficient,” López-Gatell told reporters at the Health Ministry’s Wednesday night coronavirus press briefing.
He said 12.9 million people have been fully vaccinated, meaning that they have received both shots of a two-dose vaccine or were inoculated with the single-shot CanSino. Another 9.7 million people have received one of two required doses, he said.
Mexico has used the two-shot Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and SinoVac vaccines in addition to the single-shot CanSino.
Shipments containing a combined total of 40.76 million vaccines have been delivered, meaning that almost 80% of those received have been used. A shipment of 585,000 Pfizer shots and another of 1 million SinoVac doses were due to arrive today.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally rose to 2.42 million on Wednesday with 3,269 new cases reported, while the official Covid-19 death toll increased by 306 to 228,146, a figure considered a vast undercount.
The intensity of Mexico’s coronavirus outbreak continued to wane in May with reported case numbers down 35% compared to April. Reported Covid-19 deaths declined 51% in May to 6,661, or an average of 215 per day.
