Mexico receives a shipment of 1.35 million Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses

• The vaccine will be given to the residents of the 39 municipalities on the US border.
• A total of 1,640,160 doses arrived at the Mexico City and Toluca airports.
• There has been a downward trend in the pandemic for 21 weeks. However, cases have risen in six states.
• 116 members of the Mexican Army helped with the arrival, transfer and safety of the Janssen and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

This Tuesday, 1,640,160 doses of ready-to-use vaccines arrived, of which 1,350,000 are from Johnson & Johnson and 290,160 are from Pfizer-BioNTech. This was reported at President López Obrador’s morning press conference by officials from the Health and Foreign Ministries via remote link from the Toluca and Mexico City airports.

At 6:50 a.m., flight FX53 landed at the Toluca International Airport with doses of the Janssen vaccine sent by the United States government.

The vaccines will be used in 39 municipalities on the border with the U.S. for the age groups established in the National Vaccination Strategy. The aim is to protect their health and to help accelerate the reopening of trade and economic and social activities between the two countries.

At the National Palace, Health Secretary Jorge Alcocer said that Mexico's vaccination plan is advancing. "We are meeting the goal we presented 23 weeks ago of reducing serious illness and deaths caused by COVID- 19."

The Health Secretary reported that the people who are more vulnerable to developing serious complications and dying from the virus have been vaccinated, such as frontline health personnel, the elderly, pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 39 beginning in the ninth week of pregnancy and education workers, the latter to prevent the virus from spreading when children go back to the classroom.

The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, said that 30 percent of the population over 18 years of age has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. He recognized that there are states where progress has been difficult, while in urban areas such as Mexico City, progress has been quicker because of the mass vaccination sites.

López-Gatell reiterated that the pandemic has been lessening for 21 weeks, but said that there are six states with increasing spread: Baja California Sur, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Sinaloa, Veracruz and Yucatán. In these six states, work will continue with the state governments, which have acted very responsibly and have responded rapidly throughout the pandemic.

He called on the public to avoid going to crowded places and to watch for any signs and symptoms such as fever, headache, sore throat, cough or sudden fatigue. They could be symptoms of COVID-19 and the public should seek medical care, preferably from the public sector, since the health professionals have been trained to provide the necessary care throughout the pandemic.

He warned that the rapid blood tests offered by the medical facilities found at pharmacies do not reliably detect COVID-19, since they are for antibodies and need to be done 15 to 20 days after the onset of symptoms for a reliable result.

He also said that the New Molecule Committee of the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris) had granted emergency use authorization to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years.

He announced that, beginning this Wednesday in Baja California, people living in the 39 municipalities on Mexico's northern border will receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccines that arrived this morning.

From the airport, via remote link with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the head of the North America Unit, Roberto Velasco, said that the shipment of 1,350,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the result of the agreements between the Mexican and U.S. governments. The doses, which arrived from Memphis, Tennessee, will be sent today to the northern border to continue with the vaccination program.

On behalf of the Mexican government, he thanked the U.S. government for its support in advancing a joint vaccination strategy in North America in order to strengthen and expedite the economic recovery of the border area.

The Chargé d'Affaires of the U.S. embassy in Mexico, John S. Creamer, said that this shipment of vaccines is a sign of the solidarity and relationship between the two countries.

Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine is authorized for emergency use by the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris).

Later on Tuesday, at 8:19 a.m., the 43rd shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived at the Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City on flight CVG MEX 952 from Cincinnati, Ohio with 290,160 ready-to-use doses. A total of 17,857,905 doses have been shipped from Pfizer to Mexico.

The Director General of Birmex Laboratories, Pedro Zenteno, explained via remote link to the morning press conference that with this new shipment of vaccines, Mexico had now received a total of 47,896,815 doses and will have exceeded the milestone of 50 million doses by the end of the month.

116 members of the Mexican Army helped with the arrival, transfer and safety of the Janssen and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Mexico has received 43,351,505 doses of ready-to-use vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, CanSino and Johnson & Johnson. In addition, the Drugmex laboratory in Mexico has fill/finished 4,545,310 doses of the CanSino vaccine, for a grand total of 47,896,815 doses.

To date, there have been 74 shipments on 88 flights, as follows:

Mexico has also received nine bulk shipments of active ingredient for their final fill/finish, as follows:

The following was received as a bulk shipment and the fill/finish process in Mexico has concluded:

The national COVID-19 vaccination strategy follows the priorities determined by the federal government to reduce COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths, to reopen schools to minimize the interruption to education, and to reduce the risk of death by pregnant women.