In a major reversal, Mexico’s federal government now says it will request COVID-19 vaccines from the WHO’s COVAX program for the country’s children.
As recently as last month, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had argued that healthy children under 12 need not be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“There is no evidence that this would be of any help. Children’s immune systems are strong and are at no significant risk,” said the president.
But the president changed his tune during his regular morning news conference.
“We want what they owe us because we paid in advance,” AMLO said somewhat cryptically.
COVAX is a worldwide initiative founded in 2021 that aims for equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Mexico has already received nearly 25 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, according to the World Health Organization.
Acording to official data offered up by the federal government, as of February 2022, just over 90,000 children have become infected with COVID-19 in Mexico.
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As of the same date, 800 children in Mexico are said to have lost their lives to complications stemming from COVID-19.
In a similar move, Mexico City’s head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, has announced that the county’s capital is now planning its own vaccination program for children as young as 5. The program is in coordination with federal authorities.
Vaccination of minors between the ages of 12 and 17 began across the country in 2021, but data on how many minors have been reached remains unpublished.
There is still no word when children under 12 could expect to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in Yucatán.
Yucatán on Wednesday reported no new coronavirus-related deaths or infections for the third day in a row.
