The countries leading the vaccination race in Latin America

Chile, Argentina, Mexico and Costa Rica have received their first bulk shipments of COVID-19 vaccines this week.

Vaccination programs have started to get underway.

Tackling the pandemic is vital to economic recovery in the region, which was already underperforming prior the spread of the virus and the subsequent lockdowns. 

CHILE

Authorities in Chile unloaded on Thursday 10,000 Pfizer-BioNTech doses which will be administered to healthcare workers. Another 10,000 doses are due next week.

Overall, Chile has ordered more than 30mn doses, comprising 10mn of Pfizer-BioNTech, 10mn of Sinovac, and the balance from AstraZeneca-Oxford and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson and via the WHO’s Covax platform.

Population: 19mn

ARGENTINA

Thursday also saw 300,000 doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik V arrive in Argentina. The country’s national vaccination program involves the purchase of 51mn doses, state news agency Télam reported. Authorities are also in talks over AstraZeneca-Oxford and Chinese vaccines, it added. 

Healthcare workers are among those first in line for the jab.

A further 5mn vaccine doses are due next month and 14mn more are scheduled to arrive in February, Télam reported public health official Martín Sabignoso as saying.

Population: 45mn

MEXICO

The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was also the first to arrive in Mexico in bulk quantities. The country’s military, which is involved in the logistics, received the shipment of 3,000 doses on Wednesday.

Authorities approved Pfizer’s vaccine earlier this month, allowing Mexico to be the first in the region to actually begin inoculating its citizens, with the first batch already committed to healthcare workers.

The next delivery will contain 50,000 more doses, amid hopes 250,000 will arrive by December 31. The country is scheduled to receive 1.4mn doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two doses for full inoculation, by January 31.

Mexico has agreed to buy at least 34.4mn doses from Pfizer, and has also signed a deal to buy 35mn doses of the Chinese CanSino vaccine. The AstraZeneca-Oxford and Moderna vaccines are also under consideration in Mexico.

AstraZeneca, in October, signed an agreement with the Carlos Slim Foundation, a Mexican non-profit organization, to contribute to manufacture in Argentina and Mexico, and distribute the COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 on a non-profit basis during the pandemic for Latin America. This agreement will initially supply 150mn doses to Latin America, excluding Brazil, which will be covered by AstraZeneca’s agreement with the Brazilian government, announced in June. First shipments are expected in the first half of 2021, should clinical trials prove successful.

Early in its pandemic strategy, Mexico focused on the acquisition of vaccines, with foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard leading the effort and inviting drug makers to conduct trials in Mexico with ready access to volunteers for various trials, including those for Pfizer and the Chinese CanSino candidate with others already lining up to conduct prospective trials.

Population: 128mn

COSTA RICA

Costa Rica received on Wednesday a shipment of 9,750 Pfizer-BioNTech doses, news agency AFP reported.

Population: 5mn

BRAZIL

Amid worsening infection and death rates, Brazil has trailed in the race to start vaccinating its population compared with some Latin American peers.

Immunization has become the center of a political dispute involving President Jair Bolsonaro and São Paulo state governor João Doria.

A key element in the political battle over the São Paulo vaccine is its origin: Chinese lab Sinovac. Bolsonaro, who has taken to spreading misinformation since the start of the pandemic, has been a harsh critic of China and ordered the federal government to invest only in the European vaccine developed by AstraZeneca-Oxford.

Vaccination is expected to start in January and may last into 2022, given the size of the population, political disputes and a lack of a national plan.

A total of 10mn Sinovac vaccine doses have already arrived in São Paulo state, with health authority deployment approval still pending. Some vaccine doses are due to be produced by Institute Butantan, a Brazilian research center. A total of 46mn vaccines are likely to come from China, with Butantan output expected to be distributed in other states.

Population: 211mn

COLOMBIA

Colombia plans to start a mass vaccination program in early January, President Iván Duque has said.

Authorities have closed deals to purchase 10mn doses from Pfizer-BioNTech, 10mn from AstraZeneca-Oxford and 20mn doses through the Covax platform.

Population: 50mn

Picture caption: Chile's President Sebastián Piñera inspects a shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines on Thursday. CREDIT: Chilean government 

With additional reporting by James Young and Rogerio Jelmayer