Murphy Woodhouse/KJZZ

Several Hermosillo residents receive their coronavirus vaccines in early August 2021.

This week, neighboring Sonora, Mexico, surpassed an important milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign: more than 2 million shots have been given across the state. And more than 715,000 people in Sonora are now fully vaccinated, according to Sonoran Health Secretary Enrique Clausen.

That’s about 24% of the state’s population — just higher than the national vaccination rate of about 23%, or nearly 30 million people fully vaccinated. And it appears the country is on pace to meet the president's goal of giving all adults the opportunity to be vaccinated by the end of October.

This week, the country authorized emergency use of the Moderna vaccine in preparation for a delivery of 1.75 million doses from the U.S.

The progress with vaccinations, however, comes as both the state and the country are experiencing a devastating third wave of the virus.

In recent weeks, Mexico has seen record-breaking daily coronavirus counts, and this week surpassed 250,000 official COVID-19 deaths. That's likely a significant undercount, however. The federal government has recorded more than 507,000 excess deaths amid the pandemic, according to the most recent available data, updated on July 16.

In Sonora, nearly 12,000 excess deaths were have been recorded since 2020.