MEXICO CITY (AP) – The average age of people who die from COVID-19 in Mexico is surprisingly younger than the average for European countries, 55 years compared to 75 in the old continent, reported Thursday the Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell.
Regardless, the country’s future vaccination campaign would focus first on elderly Mexicans, said López-Gatell, who is in charge of Mexico’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The high rates of obesity, diabetes and hypertension in the country explain the low average age of people who die from COVID-19 here, the undersecretary noted. Mexico has one of the highest obesity rates in the world, he added.
The approval in the country of the vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech could take place on Friday, Lopez-Gatell said. But he noted that all vaccine purchases would be at the federal level, and that state governments would not be able to make purchases on their own.
Earlier, a state governor from an opposition party said that some of his counterparts were considering purchasing vaccines on their own.
So far, Mexico has registered 1 million 217,126 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 112,326 deaths, although the real death toll is believed to be around 150,000.
