Seniors should register on the government’s vaccination website before receiving their booster shots against COVID-19, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.

The federal government said earlier this month that registration wasn’t required, but López-Gatell said it would help speed up the process at vaccination centers.

“When we announced the booster shots, we indicated that prior registration wouldn’t be needed, but we’ve detected that it’s advisable to have prior registration,” he told President López Obrador’s morning press conference.

“… We don’t want elderly people to be waiting for a long time in vaccination centers … so it is important to register,” the deputy minister said.

Seniors should register for a booster shot on the mi vacuna (my vaccine) website. Vaccine candidates are required to enter their CURP identity number, the date of their most recent shots – six months must have elapsed to qualify for a booster – and their address.

López-Gatell announced last week that people aged 60 and over will be given AstraZeneca COVID-19 booster shots regardless of the vaccine with which they were first inoculated. The application of boosters has already begun in some states. Additional doses will also be made available to younger adults but that appears unlikely to happen until next year.

As of Monday, more than 137.9 million vaccine doses have been administered to some 81 million people, most of whom are fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination rate among adults is above 85% but only 63% among the entire population, according to The New York Times vaccinations tracker.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally stands at almost 3.92 million after the Health Ministry reported 771 new cases on Monday. The official COVID-19 death toll increased by 49 to 296,721. However, the real number of fatalities is believed to be much higher.

With reports from Milenio