Mexico approves Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine

Mexico on Tuesday approved the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V for use, just hours after the publication of early results of an advanced study saying it is about 91% effective.

During a daily COVID-19 news conference, Assistant Health Secretary received confirmation of the approval by national health regulator COFEPRIS, which he shared with journalists.

López-Gatell, the government's pandemic spokesman, also said the Mexican Ministry of Health signed a contract Monday for 400,000 doses of Sputnik V which will arrive later in February.

That is still a tiny amount for Mexico's 126 million people, but it couldn't come a moment too soon.

Mexico has been hit so hard that hospitals in the capital were 87% full, and ambulance drivers waited hours to find an open bed for patients.

The anxiety among the public was on display Tuesday, when the Mexican government launched a new website for people over age 60 to register for appointments to get vaccines the country does not yet have.

So many people logged on the health department apparently did not have the bandwidth to handle requests. The department's website was quickly overwhelmed and the registration page did not load. The Russian vaccine would become the third to receive emergency approval in Mexico.

COFEPRIS approved the Pfizer vaccine in December and AstraZeneca's in January. Mexico has so far given about 675,000 doses of vaccine, all of them from Pfizer. On Tuesday, a second batch of the active substance in the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Mexico, where it will be packed and distributed through the rest of Latin America.