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 / Modified oct 20, 2021 3:58 p.m.

Mexico’s president wants WHO to authorize Sputnik and CanSino vaccines

Until the life-saving medicines get that authorization, Mexicans who received them will likely not be able to cross into the United States when restrictions are lifted on Nov. 8. by Murphy Woodhouse, Fronteras Desk

Amlo prensa Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at one of his press conferences at Mexico's National Palace in Mexico City.
Office of the Mexican President via Fronteras Desk

Mexico’s president is urging the World Health Organization to authorize the Sputnik and CanSino vaccines.

Until the life-saving medicines get that authorization, Mexicans who received them will likely not be able to cross into the United States when restrictions on non-essential travel are lifted on Nov. 8. Only those approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or WHO currently qualify.

“They may not approve them,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday during his daily press conference, adding that he saw that as “improbable, because we’re talking about health, we’re not talking about political or ideological questions.”

He said he intends to soon send a letter asking the international body to do so soon.

Currently, the two-dose Sputnik and one-dose CanSino account for about 15% of the nearly 130 million doses administered in Mexico so far, according to recent federal data.

In Sonora, no Sputnik doses have been given, but nearly 130,000 CanSino doses have been used, accounting for roughly 6% of doses, according to a state health department representative and federal data.

Fronteras Desk
Fronteras Desk is a KJZZ project covering important stories in an expanse stretching from Northern Arizona deep into northwestern Mexico.
MORE: Coronavirus, Mexico, News
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