The president prepared to call out more military, state and local personnel to spur the vaccination effort as more doses arrive, including a shipment of 1.7 million AstraZeneca shots the United States has "loaned" Mexico.

Mexico's total 200,211 confirmed COVID-19 deaths announced on Thursday trail only the US and Brazil, countries with larger populations.

The real death toll is believed to be drawing closer to 300,000, due to the country's extremely low rate of testing.

The Mexican government stopped publishing numbers on excess deaths at the end of 2020 - the last time the numbers were reported was at the start of January, before the worst of the second wave of deaths hit.

But authorities in Mexico City have published excess death figures through the end of February, and they show that January's deaths were almost 46 per cent higher than in the city's first wave in June.

Mexico City was among the hardest-hit cities in the world. Mexico City's 9 million inhabitants suffered 38,627 deaths. With only 7.1 per cent of the country's population, the capital has had 19.3 per cent of the country's total deaths.

While large, closely packed cities with intensive mass transit systems may have suffered more across the globe, Mexico City also has far better health care facilities than the rest of the country. Still, the capital saw about 430 confirmed COVID-19 deaths per 100,000.

Lopez Obrador said on Thursday he views it as a race against time to get all people over 60 vaccinated with at least one dose by the end of April, before a possible third wave hits.

"We have to avoid any rebound, an undesired, extraordinary situation of a rebound in infections like those that are occurring in some other parts of the world," Lopez Obrador said.

"We do not want a resurgence."

It is unlikely that Mexico's approximately six million vaccines delivered so far have played much of a role in the statistical reduction in deaths in recent weeks, and it is unclear how many Mexican will take the shots.

Australian Associated Press