Mexico ranks 13th in Latin America with full vaccination against COVID-19

Although Mexico ranks 13th among Latin American and Caribbean countries with 44.8% of the population over 18 years of age with a complete vaccination schedule against Covid-19, it is even below economies such as Cuba, which reports 47.1% of immunized people.

Mexico ranks 13th in Latin America with full vaccination against COVID-19
Mexico ranks 13th in Latin America for complete vaccination. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

With 44.8% of the population over 18 years of age with a complete vaccination schedule against Covid-19, Mexico ranks 13th among Latin American and Caribbean countries, even below economies such as Cuba, which reports 47.1% of immunized people, according to a document from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

According to the newspaper El Norte, with a smaller population than Mexico, Chile is at the top with 87.5% of adults with full immunization coverage, followed by Uruguay, with 86.4%; Ecuador, with 81%; El Salvador, with 71.4%; Panama, with 70.4%; Dominican Republic, with 65.4%; Argentina, with 59.3; Saint Kitts and Nevis, with 50.6; Antigua and Barbuda, with 49.3; Brazil, with 47.7; Cuba, with 47.1; and Costa Rica, with 45.2.

For Rafael Lozano, a specialist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, Mexico is as far as the availability of vaccines allows.

"If it could go faster, it would surely go faster; I don't think there is an interest in going slow. It's more about vaccine availability and distribution capacity. They probably started slower than they should have and they are already catching up.

According to the specialist, the vaccines arrived practically at the same time, but the speed at which they were applied in the countries from the beginning was different.

"Where they are falling short is with young people under 18 years of age and they particularly have to work very hard with all these approvals from the laboratories on the application of vaccines in children from 5 to 11 years of age," said the expert.

"Chile started fast and was firm, politicized less and made it very technical. In Mexico we were slow because of politicization, we started very slowly. There are brutal phenomena such as the arrival of Kamala Harris to Mexico and the great entry in the North; the help provided by the IMSS to Chiapas, those things do make a very big difference", he said.