Candidates for Covid vaccination line up at a military hospital in Mexico City.
Some frontline healthcare workers waited for up to 10 hours for a Covid shot Wednesday only to find they weren’t on the list.
Doctors and nurses charged disorder in the vaccination process at the El Vergel military hospital in Mexico City after arriving in the early hours of the morning only to find later in the day they were not on the list of candidates.
Among them was an emergency Covid nurse who said the vaccine was being administered to cooks, dentists and administrators while frontline workers were not eligible due to the organizational problems.
There was a similar situation at a military hospital in Naucalpan, México state, where night-shift workers faced long lines and long waits after going straight from work to the hospital for their vaccination appointments.
When they complained to military personnel they were advised that the federal Ministry of Health was responsible for setting up the appointments.
The armed forces have been put in charge of distributing and administering the Covid vaccine in a national vaccination program that kicked off last week.
The program has designated healthcare workers who are in contact with Covid patients as its first priority, but others have been jumping the line for a shot.
The director of the Adolfo López Mateos medical centre in Toluca, México state, has been temporarily relieved of his duties while he is investigated for having members of his family inoculated.
The case was denounced during Wednesday’s presidential press conference.
President López Obrador said Thursday that thanks to such denouncements there should be no further cases of jumping the vaccination line.
He expects people will not do so for fear of being shamed by a public denouncement.
Source: Reforma (sp), El Universal (sp), El Financiero (sp)
