Guatemala receives second donation of 150,000 vaccine doses from Mexico

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The shipment was delivered on the main runway of the Guatemalan Air Force while officials held a protocol ceremony for its reception.

Guatemalan Deputy Foreign Minister Eduardo Hernández thanked the Mexican people for the donation, as well as Ebrard and the president of the neighboring country Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

Mexico’s Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights Marta Delgado assured that for the country “there will be no relief until the entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean succeeds in controlling the pandemic.”

She also stressed that in international forums Mexico “has fought for fair and equitable access to vaccines and for international solidarity in the distribution of this vital resource.”

“Mexico wants to act in accordance with the international solidarity we request at the United Nations and in international forums,” she said.

The vaccines delivered to Guatemala on Tuesday are packaged in Mexico and produced in Argentina, the undersecretary said.

So far, Guatemala has received over 6.58 million doses, mostly donated by the governments of the United States, Mexico, India and Israel, while the government has acquired drugs through the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Covax facility and direct purchase from the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

Of the total number of vaccines administered, 38% were from Moderna, 36% from AstraZeneca and 26% Sputnik V, while 54% of people immunized are women and the remainder are men, according to the Ministry of Health’s pandemic situation board.

So far, the Central American country has 373,047 confirmed Covid-19 cases, of which 33,799 are active and 10,483 deaths.