Mexico City, Aug 21 (IANS): Mexico has been offered at least 2,000 doses of a Russian Covid-19 vaccine and is to take part in its clinical trials, said Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.

This is "very good news because once again we are gaining time", Xinhua news agency quoted Ebrard as saying on Thursday.

The Minister and Russian Ambassador to Mexico Viktor Koronelli met on Wednesday to discuss the country's participation in testing the "Sputnik V" vaccine developed by Russia's Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology.

"It will arrive in Mexico to begin testing. I will announce the date very soon, but yesterday both the offer and the acceptance were formalized," Ebrard said.

Mexico has agreed to help produce a Covid-19 vaccine for Latin America developed by the UK's Oxford University and pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, said Ebrard.

Phase three trials of a vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson are likely to begin in September, he added.

Mexico has so far reported a total of 543,806 coronavirus cases with 59,106 deaths, according health authorities.