A medical worker holds a vial of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during the country's mass vaccination program, in Belgrade, Serbia, March 16, 2021. REUTERS/Zorana Jevtic
MEXICO CITY - The United States should respond by Friday to Mexico's request to share doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine it has in stock, a senior Mexican official said on Tuesday, as Canadian authorities confirmed they also asked their southern neighbor for extra doses.
Reuters reported this week that Mexico had asked for extra shipments of the British-developed vaccine, since it has yet to be approved for use in the United States.
"I'd say we've made good progress, but the details, figures, provisions, won't be known until Friday," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard told reporters. "We requested as many (AstraZeneca doses) as possible."
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador asked U.S. President Joe Biden for a vaccine "loan" during a virtual meeting on March 1, after Mexico's vaccine strategy was knocked off course by slow deliveries from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE.
"We are hoping for the help, support and solidarity of the U.S. government," Lopez Obrador told a regular news conference on Tuesday. He added that people in Mexico over 60 will be vaccinated by the end of April, a month later than previously planned.
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the U.S. priority is to vaccinate Americans.
"If we have surplus vaccines from that effort we will look for ways to share them," the person said, without addressing whether the U.S. government would respond to Mexico by Friday.
Biden on Tuesday said the United States is in talks with several countries about who could receive any extra doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
"We're talking with several countries already," Biden told reporters when asked. "I'll let you know that very shortly."
Canadian Procurement Minister Anita Anand said Canada's ambassador to the United States is in talks with the Biden administration over its supply of unused doses.
"On the subject of these additional AstraZeneca doses... I am in close touch with Ambassador (Kirsten) Hillman, and we together are engaged with the U.S. administration on this very issue," Anand told CTV on Sunday.
The push by Mexico and Canada to obtain extra AstraZeneca doses comes as several countries, including Germany, Italy and France, have suspended vaccinating people with the product amid concerns over blood clots.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said there was no indication that blood clot incidents in vaccinated people had been caused by the AstraZeneca shot, but that experts were assessing that possibility.
