Fake “vaccination teams” were reported in Quintana Roo, visiting homes and asking for copies of their ID cards, authorities said.
The teams said the data was required to sign up for anti-coronavirus shots. The state health department said the teams are fraudulent and urged people not to give them any information.
ID cards have personal information that have been used in the past for electoral fraud and identity theft.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s rollout of approved Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines is moving slowly. Injections were promised in Yucatán by the end of December, but have yet to be organized.
Related: Political motives seen in AMLO’s vaccine rollout
Rural elderly residents will be first in line, once Mexico has vaccinated its frontline medical workers against COVID-19, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Tuesday.
Ten thousand brigades made up of medical personnel and health promoters with security provided by the National Guard will target 3 million senior citizens in remote areas. The brigades will work back from isolated areas to towns and cities.
The plan will hinge on Mexico’s approval of the Chinese CanSino vaccine, which only requires a single dose and doesn’t require ultra-cold storage. So far, Mexico has approved only vaccines from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
Mexico reported a near-record 11,271 new coronavirus cases Tuesday and 1,065 COVID-19 deaths. Mexico has now seen almost 1.47 million cases and 128,822 deaths in total. The highest one-day case report was 12,511 in mid-December.
Mexico started deploying those vaccines Dec. 24 in Mexico City and Coahuila, aiming to have 750,000 front-line health workers vaccinated by the end of January.
The pace of the vaccine rollout, however, has been slow, with just over 4,000 shots administered Tuesday.
Mauricio Rodríguez, a professor at the medical school of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said starting in rural areas would only make sense if it involved the cheaper, one-shot Chinese CanSino vaccine. Otherwise, he said, starting in urban areas with more cases would make more sense, he said.
Source: The Associated Press
