MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador expects to be able to put a COVID-19 vaccine into use in the country during the first quarter next year, he said in a video on Twitter on Sunday.
His government has struck a partnership with Argentina and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc to produce a vaccine for distribution throughout Latin America.
The novel coronavirus has killed at least 766,228 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December.
At least 21,500,350 cases have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 13,205,100 are now considered recovered.
After the US, the hardest-hit countries are Brazil with 107,232 deaths from 3,317,096 cases, Mexico with 56,543 deaths from 517,714 cases, India with 49,980 deaths from 2,589,682 cases, and United Kingdom with 41,361 deaths from 317,379 cases.
The United States is the worst-hit country with 169,489 deaths from 5,361,613 cases. At least 1,818,527 people have been declared recovered.
The country with the highest number of deaths compared to its population is Belgium with 86 fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants, followed by Peru (79), Spain 61, United Kingdom 61, and Italy 59.
Latin America and the Caribbean overall has 240,071 deaths from 6,111,270 cases, Europe 210,374 deaths from 3,509,567 infections, and the United States and Canada 178,549 deaths from 5,483,457 cases.
Asia has reported 79,406 deaths from 3,940,731 cases, Middle East 32,068 deaths from 1,319,087 cases, Africa 25,331 deaths from 1,110,768 cases, and Oceania 429 deaths from 25,476 cases.
