The Mexican government expects to finalize in the coming weeks the procurement and supply of pediatric vaccines from Pfizer to vaccinate against Covid-19 to children between 5 and 11 years of age, in addition to continuing talks with the Cuban government for an eventual acquisition of the Abdala vaccine, reported the Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo Lopez-Gatell.
In videoconference from Geneva, Switzerland, where he attended the 75th Assembly of the World Health Organization (OMS); the official recognized that for the vaccination of minors between 5 and 11 years they need new contracts with Pfizer, for which formal conversations have already begun, in addition to maintaining the dialogue with the Covax mechanism, from which a supply of biologicals for children is expected.
Regarding the Cuban vaccine, he acknowledged that “it still does not have a sanitary registry in Mexico (…) and we are also working with the Cuban government to identify all the elements for an eventual approval of the vaccines.”
He clarified that false steps will not be taken and “there is no prejudice in the sense that we have pressure to acquire them and that this could precipitate the sanitary authorization. It’s not like that, it’s not the way we behave,” he emphasized.
“Nobody is going to make a false step in health security, but what we are doing is identifying opportunities in advance to acquire this vaccine. At the time, when you already have the health registration, if you have one, an emergency use authorization similar to that of the other vaccines, then we would proceed to a contracting process, ”he explained.
Mexico has 10 million anti-Covid doses
López-Gatell reported that 10.5 million vaccines against Covid-19 are still available in Mexico, enough to continue immunizing people 12 years of age and older.
He pointed out that the end of the pandemic cannot be declared in the country and, on the contrary, the authorities are on alert due to the increase in cases. He explained that if the rebound reaches 20,000 infections, there would be talk of a fifth wave of the epidemic, but for now “it is too early to make a prediction about whether these variations that we have actually had between five thousand, seven thousand, 10 thousand cases , are they going to become the fifth wave or not?
read also New subvariants of omicron detected in Mexico
He noted that given that other countries are in resurgence “it would not be surprising” if in Mexico we also began to experience a rebound or a fifth wave of the disease.
However, he clarified that even when a fifth wave arrives, the population will be protected because the vaccine reduces serious illness and the risk of mortality, “but it also reduces the possibility of transmission if there is a sufficient volume of people who have immunity complete”.
He stressed that although the epidemic is not declared over, “the biological, epidemiological, ecological characteristics of the SARS CoV2 virus suggest that it will behave in perpetuity like many of the respiratory viruses (…) the virus will never leave the human species , the virus will continue to be present” with predictable cycles, in the season from October to March.
read also Hugo López-Gatell has done a good job in the face of the Covid pandemic, says AMLO
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