- The Cuban Abdala and Russian Sputnik vaccines against Covid-19 will be applied as a booster in Mexico.
- The official assured that these options are safe and work against the most recent variants of the virus circulating in the world.
- The priority to receive the biological are people over 60 years of age, pregnant women, people with comorbidities and health personnel.
The pandemic remains active in Mexico and even in recent weeks an increase in the number of infections has been reported. With this in mind, the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer Varela, announced the details of the booster vaccines against Covid-19 that will be applied during the 2023-2024 winter season to immunize the population with vulnerable conditions.
Who will receive the booster vaccine first?
Firstly, the official reported that the priority to receive the biological is the people over 60 years of age, pregnant women, people with comorbidities and health personnel. In total, all groups add up to 24 million 498 thousand individuals.
Now, he said that at the moment there are five million 386 thousand doses of vaccines against Covid-19 in warehouses. They all correspond to the Cuban Abdala version, although it is estimated that between October and November four million will arrive from the Russian Sputnik and the rest will be purchased on the international market.
Alcocer Varela announced that it is foreseeable that the vaccination begins the second week of October, simultaneously with immunization against influenza. He also said that the options Mexico has cover the most recent variants that have appeared. He added that the changes the virus has undergone have been minimal.
Basification of health workers
On another topic, he reported the progress of the basicization process of health personnel to the decentralized public body (OPD) IMSS-Bienestar in Nayarit, Tlaxcala, Colima, Sinaloa, Sonora, Baja California Sur and Mexico City. In total, 8,614 health workers have been hired, including medical, nursing and paramedical personnel.
He explained that the places have been delivered as follows: in Nayarit, 467; Tlaxcala, 294; Colima, 180; Sinaloa, 910; Sonora, 1,022; Baja California Sur, 257; and in Mexico City, five thousand 484.
He indicated that social justice criteria were established for hiring, such as giving the position to personnel who were not based in any other health institution, in addition to workers assigned to medical care areas in hospitals or health centers.
He affirmed that this year the basification will continue in the entities that are part of the federalization process of health services. The first group is made up of Guerrero, Campeche, Veracruz, Zacatecas and Chiapas. Later it will continue with Tamaulipas, Quintana Roo, Puebla, Tabasco and Morelos. While a fourth stage will include Hidalgo, Oaxaca, Michoacán, San Luis Potosí and Baja California.
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