Mexico City, Mexico — Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health has announced that minors between the ages of 12 and 17 who are at risk of severe Covid will be vaccinated. “The government of Mexico bought vaccines for all people from one year of age onwards and they will be applied based on international scientific consensus,” reported Hugo López-Gatell Monday.
At least one million children and adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 in Mexico are known to be high risk for either developing serious symptoms and / or dying from Covid-19.
With this, the government said those children will receive the coronavirus vaccine, adding that Pfizer already has authorization for emergency use in this age group.
“Everything that is for the benefit of the population we are going to do without any kind of limitations,” he said. “The ones who need the most protection should go first. That doesn’t mean that others don’t matter. Public health takes care of populations, but the majority of children and adolescents are healthy people at low to very low risk.”
This, after López-Gatell said last week that families using Amparos to ensure vaccines for their children were ‘diverted’ for people with greater risk, for which he was criticized.
Now he says that the National Vaccination Plan will provide vaccines for the 12 to 17 age group considered high risk, explaining that around the country, there are around one million children known to have cancer (leukemia, lymphoma, solid tumors), kidney or liver failure, HIV / AIDS, while other are living with with organ transplants, congenital diseases and others that have a decreased immune system (defenses).
His announcement came a week after a minor in Chetumal won a court judgement for the right to be vaccinated. Even though Pfizer has been approved for use in children over 12, the 12 to 17 year old age group has been eliminated from the federal vaccination plan. Two other families in Cancun are currently going through legal channels to have their children vaccinated.