Donated US vaccines arrive for Mexican border cities

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico received 1.35 million doses of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccines donated by the United States Tuesday and Mexican officials said that once they are applied, there would be no reason to continue restricting travel over the U.S. border.

The U.S. vaccine shipment will be used to vaccinate anyone over 18 in four cities along the U.S. border: Tijuana, Mexicali, Ciudad Juárez and Reynosa. Mexico has said the goal is to boost vaccination rates there to levels similar to the U.S. cities they adjoin.

Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, who was meeting with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Mexico City, said that after the vaccinations “there will be no public health arguments for keeping the border closed.”

The U.S. and Mexico have restricted border crossings to essential travel since early in the pandemic.

Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said the expanded vaccinations in border cities could begin Wednesday. Mexico is seeking to acquire more of the vaccine to inoculate all border residents.

Mexico has also donated 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Belize and 150,000 doses to Bolivia and Paraguay. Those vaccines were produced in Argentina and bottled at a plant in Mexico.

Mexico is running its own vaccination program using a mix of vaccines. That program is currently focusing on people over 40, and and has so far administered about 26 million shots, enough to cover about 30% of people in the country over 18.

Mexico had seen a fairly steady decline in coronavirus cases since an upsurge in December and January. However, this week the national reported case number rose by 8%, something López-Gatell attributed to a recent surge in cases in the state of Yucatan and the Caribbean coast state of...