MEXICO CITY (AP) — An intensive care nurse in Mexico City has become the first person in Latin America _ to receive an approved coronavirus vaccine. Mexico began administering the first 3,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Thursday. In a broadcast ceremony, Maria Irene Ramirez got the first shot, under the watchful eyes of military personnel who escorted the vaccine shipment. Ramirez called it “the best present I could have received in 2020.” Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell waxed poetic, saying, "Today the stage of the epidemic and its treament changes, to a ray of hope.”

Eduardo Verdugo/AP
Intensive care nurse Maria Ramirez is the first to get vaccinated for COVID-19 at the General Hospital in Mexico City, early Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020. “This is the best present I could have received in 2020,” said Ramirez. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Posted at 8:57 AM, Dec 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-24 19:35:28-05
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