US to ship Moderna vaccines this week.
The United States government will deliver an additional 1.75 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Mexico on Tuesday, according to a White House official who spoke with the newspaper Reforma.
The shipment will fulfill the pledge made by the Biden administration last month to donate 3.5 million Moderna doses to Mexico. The first batch of 1.75 million shots arrived August 24.
Upon taking delivery of the second batch of Moderna vaccines, Mexico will become the largest recipient of United States-donated vaccines in Latin America. Colombia has received about 6 million shots from the U.S. but the total received by Mexico will rise to almost 7.6 million on Tuesday.
Indonesia is currently the biggest recipient of U.S. vaccine donations, having received some 8 million shots. However, shots sent to Mexico will probably exceed that figure in the coming weeks as the Mexican government expects to receive more AstraZeneca shots, although the White House hasn’t confirmed that will occur.
In other COVID-19 news:
• The federal Health Ministry reported Sunday that almost 95.3 million vaccine doses have been administered in the government’s vaccine program, which began December 24. It said that almost 62.1 million people, or 69% of the adult population, have received at least one dose. Two-thirds of that number are fully vaccinated.
• Mexico’s accumulated case tally increased to 3.57 million on Monday with 3,367 new infections reported. The official COVID-19 death toll rose by 262 to 271,765.
There are 60,434 estimated active cases across Mexico, a 12% decline compared to Sunday.
• Nuevo León reported 570 new cases and 33 deaths on Monday. The northern state has recorded more than 270,000 cases and over 13,600 fatalities since the start of the pandemic.
There are 1,005 COVID-19 patients in the state’s hospitals, including 12 pregnant women, authorities said Sunday. Twenty-four pregnant women have lost their lives to COVID in Nuevo León.
