Third Covid wave in Mexico spreads among young and unvaccinated people – Health ministry

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The third wave of Covid-19 in Mexican territory affects young and unvaccinated people in greater proportion, with an average age of 38 for cases and 50 for those hospitalized, warned the Government, which has defended its vaccination plan.

Mexico recorded 68,637 infections last week, a weekly increase of new cases of more than 36%, while deaths are approaching an average of 200 per day, according to official data from the Ministry of Health (SSa).

After the peaks of July 2020 and last January, Mexico is experiencing its third wave of contagions since a month ago, by now accumulating 2.66 million cases and more than 236,000 deaths, the fourth-highest figure in the world.

“We can see that the age distribution (of cases) has shifted six or seven years, today it is predominantly affecting young people,” warned Hugo Lopez-Gatell, undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion and in charge of managing the pandemic in the country.

But unlike before, when the most vulnerable were adults over the age of 60, now the average age of death is 59, Lopez-Gatell argued.

“Most of the people who are hospitalized for Covid at the moment are already people under 52 years of age, and the vast majority are people who were not vaccinated, that is more than 97%,” the official said.

HIGH VACCINATION COVERAGE

The undersecretary stated that Mexico is “a country with high vaccination coverage”, with 38.5 million people who have received at least one dose – 43% of the adult population.

However, only 21.5 million people have received the full immunization in Mexico, where there are 126 million inhabitants.

Even so, the Government has bet on the vaccine and ruled out further restrictions, even though 5 of the 32 states are already on yellow alert due to hospital occupancy above 50%, headed by Mexico City with 59%, followed by Sinaloa, Nayarit, Baja California Sur and Hidalgo.

“We have a society, of course, tired, fatigued, of having these long months of the epidemic, what one can ask of society in terms of reduced mobility is not the same today as it was in February 2020,” Lopez-Gatell justified.

BROAD CHOICE OF VACCINES

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was confident that Mexico would exceed 80 million vaccines received by the end of July, after two consecutive weeks with more than 6 million units received.

In addition, he announced the upcoming emergency approval of drugs from the U.S. Moderna and China’s Sinopharm, which join those already approved from Pfizer, AstraZeneca, CanSino, Sputnik V, Sinovac, Covaxin, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen.

“We have one of the broadest [vaccine] portfolios in the world,” said the Foreign Affairs Minister.

The foreign minister reiterated that Mexico would press at the G20 meeting in October to expand the global distribution of vaccines, promote a fair and inclusive recovery and strengthen cooperation to prevent future pandemics.

VACCINATION LAGGING BEHIND

As the third wave accelerates, the Mexican government has criticized the lag between vaccines received and vaccines administered.

Although the country has received almost 75 million doses, it only reports the application of 55.1 million.

Undersecretary Lopez-Gatell acknowledged a gap of 19.5 million but said it is a registration problem because the system is slow to capture drugs applied in regions far from major urban centers.

“There is no vaccine lost, this type of slander, of defamation, I don’t know what purposes it has, evidently not very noble, and there is a process that is slower of registration,” he stated.