Young People Flock to Vaccination Centers in Mexico City

After a long wait for COVID-19 vaccines, young people showed up in droves to vaccination centers in Mexico City last week. The large numbers of under-30s got the local authorities in trouble in at least five boroughs, where the doses were not enough for everyone, according to Claudia Sheinbaum, Governor of Mexico City.

Mexico’s capital is undergoing a third COVID-19 wave with no more lockdowns or extra restrictions, but officials are trying to vaccinate the rest of the population as fast as possible. According to the local government, the city has an accumulated total of 787,338 positive cases, 1,496 of them in Saturday and Sunday.

The total deaths officially recorded by the authorities of Mexico City is now at 45,760, after 78 new demises this past weekend. “The message is that they (under-30s) help us,” said Sheinbaum last Friday, inviting young people to wait for their turn to receive the vaccine and avoid travelling to other boroughs.

Mexico City’s authorities have been lax with requirements for those looking to get vaccinated. But in this case it led to logistic problems because people from other boroughs and states, such as State of Mexico, traveled to the capital to get their shot, making it impossible for the government to organize the massive inoculation.

Sputnik V, the Most Wanted

The first six boroughs that started vaccinating under-30s in Mexico City are: Benito Juarez, Miguel Hidalgo, Gustavo A. Madero, Tlahuac with Sputnik V, while Iztacalco and Tlalpan used Sinovac. The first four exceeded by far the expected people, while Iztacalco received 800 people more and Tlalpan 11,000 less than the 61,000 originally planned. Benito Juarez and Miguel Hidalgo were expecting 28,000 under-30s, and more than 53,000 showed up. Gustavo A. Madero, located in the north of the city, received 145,000 when they were expecting 111,000, according to Mexico City’s government portal.

“No one will remain unvaccinated,” said Eduardo Clark, Technology Chief in Mexico City and Director of the Digital Agency of Public Innovation. Clark is in charge of COVID-19 statistics and commented that due to the “extraordinary numbers” of young people getting vaccinated in two days the doses were 100 percent utilized.

Despite the rising numbers of hospitalizations in Mexico City, Sheinbaum remains optimistic as around 8 million people in the city are already vaccinated. In the country as a whole, the government has applied 67.4 million doses, with 25.8 million people fully vaccinated, meaning that over 20 percent of the population has the full protection, according to Our World in Data.

“We are looking at this moment to see if the vaccines that were planned for the following week can be given in advance to cover this week’s demand,” said Sheinbaum on her Friday’s press conference.