COVID-19 Vaccines Might Need to be Updated

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 Vaccine Composition (TAG-CO-VAC) said that current vaccines might need to be updated due to the evolution of the virus. WHO emphasizes that when updated vaccines become available a large part of the global population would have already been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, leading to variations in vaccine performance depending on the previously acquired immunity.

In an interim statement, TAG-CO-VAC invited vaccine manufacturers to work on the generation of data that the WHO can include in its decision-making framework regarding COVID-19 vaccine composition.  

Currently, all WHO regions are experiencing a rapid dominance of the Omicron variant but some countries are witnessing a decrease in cases, such as Mexico. Its 32 states are at minimum points of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths, said Hugo López-Gatell, Deputy Minister of Health. The current week started with a 41 percent reduction in cases in comparison to last week.

Nationally, the country has seen a 92 percent reduction in hospitalizations, while mortality has been reduced by 89 percent compared to Jan. 2021, according to the Ministry of Health.  Also, bed occupation in medical facilities is only at 13 percent. “We have a clear decreasing trend and we have reached minimum levels of what we characterize as the inter-epidemic period,” said López-Gatell.

President Andres Manuel López Obrador said that Mexico is one of the 10 countries that have applied more vaccines in the world and will continue to do so. “We will continue applying vaccines and convincing those who do not want to,” he said.  To date, 61.08 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. López-Gatell said that Mexico has sufficient vaccine doses and is still waiting for another COVAX shipment. 

The Ministry of Health is also continuing the promotion of prevention measures such as social distancing, frequent hand washing, mask use and air circulation in closed environments because while the pandemic continues anywhere in the world, there is still the possibility of a new wave, said López-Gatell.