Mexico City, April 7: The Mexico Federal Commission for the Protection Against Sanitary Risk (Cofepris) on Wednesday has granted authorization for the emergency use of India's first domestically-produced COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

"The decision by Cofepris to authorize the emergency use of the Covaxin vaccine produced in India was made very timely. Mexico's COVID-19 vaccination opportunities are expanding," Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said in a tweet. COVID-19 Vaccine Update: Mexico Approves Russia's Coronavirus Vaccine Sputnik V.

Since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the Mexican authorities have distributed over 9.6 million doses of vaccines, mainly among the elderly and doctors. The massive campaign began in the second half of February, reported Sputnik.

Currently, there are five different vaccines that are being used in Mexico, either purchased from abroad or produced locally--Pfizer/BioNTech, Oxford/AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Cansino, and Sputnik V.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Mexico has a total of 2,256,509 COVID-19 cases. As many as 204,985 people have died so far in the country.