The United States plans to send around 4 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca / Oxford, which has yet to be approved for use in the country, Mexico and Canada.
The information was confirmed Thursday (18) by the Mexican government, which will receive 2.5 million doses of the immunizer. Canadians will therefore keep the remaining 1.5 million doses.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a press conference that the vaccine sharing plan is not yet fully finalized, but it is the goal of the US government.
The announcement comes at a time when the United States is experiencing the largest flow of migrants in 20 years at its border with Mexico – in February alone, 100,441 people were arrested or deported on the currency, according to data from the service. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Biden government is under pressure from allies around the world to share the vaccine, primarily from AstraZeneca, which has been cleared in Europe and other countries, but has yet to be approved in the United States.
Several European countries suspended the use of immunizers made by the British pharmaceutical company this week, after some people who received the vaccine developed clots. On Thursday, however, the European medicines regulator declared the vaccine safe. The manufacturer has a plant in the United States and claims to be able to deliver 30 million doses in early April.
The agreement to share the vaccine, which does not yet have a fixed schedule, does not affect President Biden’s plans to make the vaccine available to all adults in the United States from May, an official said. government to the Reuters news agency.
The United States does not need doses of AstraZeneca to meet the target. To date, immunizers from three manufacturers – Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna Inc, and Johnson & Johnson – have been approved for use in the country. The companies have pledged to deliver nearly 500 million doses to the United States.