On December 8th, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, along with officials from the Ministry of Health, provided details on phases for Mexico’s coronavirus vaccination plan.
During the weekly “Health Pulse” conference, Health Minister Jorge Alcocer Varela explained phases of the National Vaccination program against coronavirus place first priority on front-line healthcare workers who directly tend to Covid-19 patients.
The Health Minister detailed Mexico’s vaccination strategy would extend throughout 2021 and into early 2022, beginning in mid-December with 250,000 doses of the covid vaccination produced by Pfizer-BioNtech. An additional million doses are expected each month for January, February, and March, with another 12 million doses by April of next year.
Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, Deputy Secretary on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, who has been at the forefront of Mexico’s strategies against coronavirus, expressed “…the vaccine opens a hopeful horizon to manage the epidemic in Mexico, the Americas, and across the world. Still, we must be aware vaccination is not an action from one day to another, rather it is complemented by strategies that remain relevant such as general public health measures and the ability to tend to those who are ill during this – hopefully much shorter – period…”
López-Gatell explained the vaccination plan in terms of priority and timeline as follows:
- (mid) Dec 2020 – Feb 2021: Healthcare workers (clinical personnel) on the front line of Covid-19
- Feb – April 2021: Other healthcare workers and individuals 60 years old and up
- April – May 2021: Age range 50 – 59
- May – June 2021: Age range 40 – 49
- June 2021 – March 2022: Remaining population
President López Obrador noted the goal is to provide a universal vaccination program, or rather free vaccination to the entire Mexican population. He added “preference is going to be given to doctors, nurses, and those tending to COVID patients, as well as to the elderly, and those with chronic diseases.”