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COVAX offers Mexico 10m shots after president protests delays

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gets a shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine for COVID-19 at the presidential palace in Mexico City, April 20, 2021. (FERNANDO LLANO / AP)

MEXICO CITY / TUNIS – The United Nations-backed COVAX vaccine program has offered Mexico 10 million doses of Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shots for children after the country's president vowed to complain to the UN over delays, a senior Mexican official said on Tuesday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Mexico was owed $75 million after it received less than half the 52 million vaccine doses it was allocated under the COVAX program, which aims to distribute shots equitably worldwide

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador this week said Mexico was owed $75 million after it received less than half the 52 million vaccine doses it was allocated under the COVAX program, which aims to distribute shots equitably worldwide. 

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The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, which backs COVAX along with the World Health Organization, said its offer had now been accepted following months of talks with Mexican authorities.

"These doses are available now, and can be shipped by the manufacturer as and when Mexico is able to receive them," a GAVI spokesperson said.

Earlier, Mexico's coronavirus czar Hugo Lopez-Gatell said it was "essential" the doses arrive by September.

This file photo taken on June 11, 2021 shows the entrance of the European Medicines Agency headquarters in Amsterdam. (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP)

EU

The European Medicines Agency will hold an extraordinary meeting on Sept 1 to discuss applications from Moderna and Pfizer for vaccine boosters modified to target the Omicron variant, the regulator said on Tuesday.

The new so-called bivalent shots combat the BA.1-subvariant of Omicron and the original virus first detected in China.

Britain earlier this month became the first country to clear Moderna's shot, which is also the world's first bivalent vaccine.

A medical technician displays a rapid  COVID-19 test kit at a mobile testing site in Tunis, Tunisia, Dec 22, 2020. (HASSENE DRIDI / AP)

Tunisia

Tunisian Health Minister Ali Mrabet said the World Health Organization supports Tunisia's efforts to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine locally, the Tunis Afrique Presse reported Tuesday.

During the meeting with WHO representative in Tunisia Ibrahim Zik, Mrabet promised that his ministry "is working in partnership with all the parties involved to make the vaccine project a success in Tunisia with the WHO support."

The two also discussed the ways to combat tobacco consumption and addiction in Tunisia, the TAP report said.