Hugo López-Gatell , Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, confirmed that the Government of Mexico will give priority to medical personnel and the elderly in the vaccination program against the coronavirus , which could start in the third week of December with the arrival than 250,000 vaccines.
However, the official reiterated that “everyone will have access to the vaccine,” because that is a provision of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and his government.
“Vaccines do not arrive in a single blow and although they all arrive at the same time, they cannot be given to all people at the same time,” said López-Gatell and presented a scheme that confirms that the first to be vaccinated are the workers of health and divides the population into seven groups, by decade of age, which will be vaccinated in five stages:
STAGE 1 (DECEMBER 2020 TO FEBRUARY 2021) .- Medical staff
STAGE 2 (FEBRUARY TO APRIL 2021) .- People aged 80 and over
STAGE 3 (FEBRUARY TO APRIL 2021) .- People from 70 to 79 years old
STAGE 4 (FEBRUARY TO APRIL 2021) .- People from 60 to 69 years old
STAGE 5.- (APRIL TO MAY 2021) from 50 to 59 years old
STAGE 6.- (MAY TO JUNE 2021) People from 40 to 49 years old
STAGE 7.- (JUNE 2021 TO MARCH 2022) Population under 40 years old
During the morning conference on Monday, it was recalled that Mexico purchased 34.4 million vaccines from Pfizer, which will deliver 250,000 doses this month.
However, Mexico also adhered to multilateral instruments such as the Covax system, with eight possible vaccines; and it also has three contracts with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and CanSino. The health authorities stressed that the vaccine will not mark the end of the pandemic, and that it will be necessary for citizens to continue with prevention and hygiene measures.
The undersecretary stated that stage 1 is the start of the vaccination, which will begin after next December 10, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) holds a public hearing and proceeds to announce the authorization of the Pfizer vaccine.
“24 hours later this will happen with the Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Cofepris), which also has, as a good protection agency, a group that will enter into the reflection process and review the FDA file for authorization (…) And once that is obtained, we will have identified the moment of arrival of the vaccine, “added the official.
“If everything goes as planned and as we have been discussing with Pfizer, both in the regulatory and operational areas, we will have the vaccines in the last or penultimate days of the third week of December and as soon as it arrives, will begin to be used, “said the expert.
The vaccines are expected to begin to be applied first in Mexico City (107,500 schemes) and Coahuila (17,500 schemes).
