MEXICO CITY, Oct. 31 (BNA) The Mexican Ministry of Health said on Saturday that it has received nearly 6 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19, as pressure mounts on the government to extend vaccination to children.
Reuters reported that the shipment of 5,993,700 doses followed the arrival of nearly 6.5 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine on Tuesday, easily the largest of the two vaccine shipments received by Mexico, according to data on the ministry’s website.
Mexico has fully vaccinated about 56 million people against COVID-19, or more than 43% of the population, according to Our World in Data, a research group at Oxford University.
The government has yet to implement a broad vaccination program for children, saying only that it will vaccinate up to 1 million people between the ages of 12 and 17 considered at high risk.
However, the media reported this week that a court has ordered health authorities to give children between the ages of 12 and 17 more vaccinations just as other countries do.
Separately, the Ministry of Health reported 3,478 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and 325 more deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in Mexico from the epidemic to 288,276 and the total number of cases to 3,805,765.
Officials said the department’s numbers likely represent a much lower number of cases and deaths from COVID-19.
FKN