All of Mexico’s approximately 15 million seniors have now had the opportunity to be vaccinated against Covid-19, but some 4 million decided not to get a shot.
President López Obrador said Tuesday that just over 11 million people aged 60 and over had received at least one dose of a vaccine. Seniors who haven’t yet had their second required dose will receive it in the coming weeks and months.
“The commitment to vaccinate all adults over 60 in the country in April was met,” López Obrador said. “Today [Tuesday] it is reported that all seniors in all municipalities were vaccinated.”
The president clarified that not all seniors chose to be inoculated, adding that those who decided not to get a shot will be encouraged to do so when vaccines are again available in the place they live.
“At [the national statistics agency] Inegi, it’s estimated that there are 15 million [seniors], and the number vaccinated is just over 11 million. What’s happening? There are those who haven’t wanted to get vaccinated, and we’re going to persuade them. … We’re going to seek that the highest number possible are vaccinated,” López Obrador said.
He said that vaccines were given to seniors in all of Mexico’s 2,456 municipalities and that only 14 communities decided not to join the vaccination program.
With seniors having had the opportunity to get a shot, the national vaccination program will extend to people aged 50–59 in the first week of May, the government said Tuesday without providing specific details about dates or where the rollout will begin.
People in that age bracket can register starting Wednesday on the government’s registration website. To do so, people will be required to enter their CURP identity number, the state and municipality where they live, their postal code, their telephone number and an email address.
At the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Tuesday night, health promotion chief Ricardo Cortés said that people can now use Google Maps to find the location of vaccination centers in the place they live. The federal Health Ministry and state health authorities provided details of vaccination center locations to Google, which added the information to its maps site, he said.
By entering search terms on Google Maps such as “Covid vaccine near me” or “Covid vaccination in (the city or town I live)” in English or Spanish, people can find the location of their nearest vaccination center.
The federal government expects to receive at least 12.4 million additional vaccine doses in May, a figure just under the approximately 12.7 million people aged 50–59 in Mexico. However, apparently recognizing that not everyone in that age bracket will want to get vaccinated, health official Ruy López said Tuesday that the goal is to inoculate just over 9.1 million people aged 50–59.
As of Tuesday night, just under 16.7 million vaccine doses had been administered in Mexico, mainly to seniors and health workers.
Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally is currently 2.33 million, while the official Covid-19 death toll is 215,547, although the government has acknowledged that the real number of fatalities is much higher.
Source: Milenio (sp)
