Mexico: cross-border Covid-19 vaccination program set up between Tijuana and San Diego

Approximately 10,000 Mexican manufacturing workers in the state of Baja California will soon be able to receive free Covid-19 vaccinations as part of a unique cross-border agreement. All 10,000 maquiladoras employees (US subsidiary manufacturing companies with tax friendly status), will travel by company-chartered buses to the border crossing between Tijuana, (Mexico) and San Diego, (U.S.), where a mobile vaccination center has been deployed by the University of California, San Diego. “Mexico is our largest trading partner and we need the border workforce to be healthy,” said Nathan Fletcher, chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors. The public health program, which includes the voluntary vaccination of 10,000 Mexican workers with Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, was made possible through a partnership between the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the states of Baja California and California, San Diego County, and six U.S. companies (Poly, Del Fuerte-Coca Cola, Jacuzzi, Flez, CCSI and Sempra-IEnova). This pilot program is “the first cross-border agreement we have had. This is surely going to grow a lot,” explained Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.