Ely Herrera, a health worker, injects a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus Disease COVID -19 vaccine during a mass vaccination program at Lear Corporation in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on 24 August 2021. In Mexico, Sept 24 - sept: Reuters - The COVID -- 19 vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech PFE.N will be the only one to be used in Mexico for at-risk children aged 12 - 17, Mexico's deputy health minister said on Friday.
Mexico is expanding its vaccination campaign to young people with health issues like cancer, diabetes or cardiovascular disease that make them susceptible to the virus.
We can use Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because it is the only one that has already been scientifically proven to be safe and effective in girls, boys and adolescents from 12 to 17 years old, said the Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell at a regular news conference.
It is not ruled out that other pharmaceutical companies can also give a due analysis and demonstrate the vaccines can also be used in children and adolescents, he added.
The government estimates that it will initially give vaccines to between 750,000 and 1.5 million at-risk children.
According to government data, Mexico has applied to protect 97.5 million vaccines. About 43.2 million people are fully vaccinated among its population of 126 million.
Since the pandemic began, Mexico has recorded 3,608, 976 infections and 274,139 related deaths. However health ministry officials have previously claimed that the real coronavirus numbers are likely significantly higher.