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Moderna gives Mexico 2.7 million vaccine doses as deaths top 300,000

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The U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna donated 2.7 million doses of its developed coronavirus vaccine to Mexico on Saturday.

Mexico surpassed 300,000 test-confirmed coronavirus deaths last week, but since such a low amount of testing is done in the country, a government review of death certificates estimates the true death toll from the coronavirus to be almost 460,000.

Mexican officials said the shots will be used to vaccinate teachers as they welcomed the arrival of the shipment at the airport in Toluca, which is just west of Mexico City.

Teachers in the country were second in line behind health care workers to be vaccinated in the spring of last year. Over 2.7 million teachers got initial shots in April and May, but most of them received the single-dose Chinese Cansino vaccine.

The effectiveness of that vaccine seems to wane over time. Now, the country has obtained over 200 million doses of vaccines and has been trying to reopen in-person instruction at all educational levels.

“We are grateful to receive this donation, which will undoubtedly help more boys, girls and youths to come to classrooms with greater safety and confidence,” said Education Secretary Delfina Gómez. 

In November, about half the world’s population had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, but over 50 countries had vaccinated less than 25 percent of their populations.

According to an October report from the People’s Vaccine Alliance, while rich countries have about twice the population of lower-income countries, they had still received about 50 times as many COVID-19 vaccine doses. 

ARTICLE: ELIZABETH HERTZBERG

MANAGING EDITOR: CARSON CHOATE

PHOTO CREDITS: BOSTON GLOBE

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