Mexico will expand COVID-19 vaccinations to adults over 50 at the end of April, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday as his government works to pick up the pace of inoculations.
Mexico has given a first shot to just over 7.5 million people since beginning vaccinations late last year. The country has struggled to ensure a steady flow of vaccine shipments for its population of 126 million people.
Last week, for the first time, authorities gave [anti-coronavirus] shots to more than half a million people in a single day.
Lopez Obrador said adults over 60 who have received a first dose will complete their vaccinations by April 20, and that officials would open vaccinations at the end of the month to the 13 million adults between the ages of 50 and 59.
He added that some people over the age of 60 had declined to be vaccinated, without specifying how many.
Mexico in late April will also ramp up vaccination of the country’s more than 3 million education workers, using the one-shot CanSino vaccine from China, and aim to finish inoculating the sector by May 15, Lopez Obrador said.
Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Raul Cortes; editing by Mark Heinrich