Mexico announces third dose of coronavirus vaccine for health personnel and teachers

The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Wednesday that his Government will apply a booster dose of the vaccine against coronavirus to medical personnel and teachers, although without specifying dates and the drug that will be used.

“We are just going to advance more in older adults, for obvious reasons, we have to continue advancing as is being done in booster vaccines for older adults, health personnel and teachers”, declared the president in his daily press conference.

After months of resisting doing so, the Government of Mexico began on December 7 to apply a third booster dose with the drug of AstraZeneca to adults over 60 years of age, although at that time it ruled out doing so to the rest of the population.

Now, López Obrador, who has been critical of pharmaceutical companies, promised to expand it to the rest of the priority groups.

“We have not stopped vaccinating older adults, progress is going well, we have practically finished in Mexico City and so on in other states. We are going to continue advancing and when we finish here in the city, for example, we are already reinforcing health personnel and teachers ”, promised.

Mexico accumulates more than 3.93 million cases of covid-19 and more than 298,000 deaths, the fourth highest figure in the world.

The Government claims to be the seventh country with the most vaccines applied in absolute numbers, with more than 146.9 million doses injected to 81.9 million people, 87% of the population of legal age.

The announcement of the booster dose comes when Mexico is about to turn one year, this December 24, of starting the anticovid-19 vaccination campaign, which began with medical personnel.

Although teachers were a priority group, getting the vaccine since April, unions have complained about receiving the Chinese drug from CanSino.

“The decision was made to apply the booster vaccine to all teachers, yes now, so that the national teachers know it”declared the president.

Asked if it will be possible to vaccinate children from five years of age, as is already the case in the United States, the president asked to wait because he does not want to “carry out something that is not convenient and necessary.”

“That will depend on the specialists of our country, on its convenience, if it is recommended, if it is not risky, vaccination for children, see what the World Health Organization (WHO) says about it,” he argued .

_______________________________