Mexico Begins COVID-19 Vaccination — Among First in Latin America

Mexico launched COVID-19 vaccination on December 24, 2020 — Christmas Eve — beginning with frontline healthcare workers in Mexico City, making it among the first Latin American countries to begin inoculation. The first doses were of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. AMLO eventually secured contracts covering 129% of the population through multiple suppliers including Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V, CanSino, and Sinovac. Adults received vaccines gradually: 85% received at least one dose by April 2022. AMLO himself received the AstraZeneca vaccine publicly in April 2021 despite having earlier downplayed the pandemic.