Mexican authorities on Wednesday administered the first doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, developed by Russia, to residents of the capital, who trained at a vaccination center in the south of Mexico City, eager to get any protection they could.
“With being vaccinated, it doesn’t matter which laboratory has made it,” said Ismael Ávila, 72, who lives in the Xochimilco district. “You want to get out living,” he added.
Avila commented that he was satisfied with the 92% effectiveness reported for the Russian vaccine.
Some came to the center fearing there would be the long lines and disorder that marked the early stages of the country’s vaccination campaign.
Berenice Álvarez, who is a homemaker, brought her father to be inoculated in Xochimilco, which is home to the city’s famous chinampas (floating gardens) and canals.
“I did expect to see a lot of people, a lot of disorganization, and we are learning from our mistakes, because it is more organized,” said Álvarez.
For his part, Miguel Ángel Leyte Mantilla, who is retired, was happy to receive his vaccine. “I thought this was going to be a disorder, but the truth is that I was surprised that there is order.”
Dora Argüello Hernández, 65, said that “I am of the idea that whatever it was, being vaccinated was the best.”
Mexico received its first shipment of 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine on Monday, and they were administered first to residents over 60 in the city’s poorest neighborhoods.
The nation expects to receive 24 million doses of the Russian vaccine, but at the moment it is not clear when they will arrive.
The mainstay of the country’s vaccination campaign so far has been the 1.5 million doses of the vaccine developed by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer, which has been used primarily to inoculate front-line health workers. Mexico also received doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from a plant in India and has authorized the use of two Chinese vaccines, one developed by CanSino and the other by Sinovac.
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