Rich countries “hoarding” vaccines, says Mexico

The Mexican government issued an appeal to the United Nations Security Council saying that the world’s ten richest countries account for 75 percent of the coronavirus vaccines administered globally, while at least 100 nations have been left empty-handed. 

Claiming rich countries are “hoarding” doses, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the current scenario of global vaccination “opens a huge gap between that small group of countries and the rest.”

Vaccine race

With almost 176,000 Covid-19 deaths, Mexico began immunization on December 24 using the Pfizer vaccine. It has now added a first batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca doses to its rollout and agreed to import 200,000 shots of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine on Wednesday. 

Along with 92 other countries, Mexico is also awaiting shipments from the UN-backed COVAX facility in March, as the fund plans to deliver 337 million doses in 2021. But the program was not spared by Mr. Ebrard’s criticism, saying it has to speed up its “insufficient” contribution.

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