Healthcare workers apply a rapid test to people at a temporary testing site in Mexico City
MEXICO CITY, July 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mexico’s health ministry reported 12,631 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country and 225 more fatalities, bringing the total to 2,654,699 infections and 236,240 deaths.
The number of daily new infections has surged this past week to levels not seen since February.
The government has said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher, and separate data published recently suggested the actual death toll could be 60 per cent higher than the official count.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said earlier that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine would soon be authorised.
“Good news: soon, very soon, the Moderna vaccine with a technological profile similar to that of Pfizer will be approved in Mexico,” Ebrard said on a Twitter post.
Meanwhile, Mexico City’s government will speed up COVID-19 vaccinations to its more than 9 million inhabitants starting next week as infections and hospitalisations have risen significantly, mostly among younger people, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said.
The number of people in Mexico City hospitalized with COVID-19 rose by 650 from last week to 1,871. Infections are hitting 18- to 39-year-olds, many of them unvaccinated, the hardest, according the mayor’s office.
“This increase we’re seeing in hospitalizations, the only way to reduce it is getting vaccinated and being mindful of sanitary measures,” said Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum gave the green light for all residents over 30 years of age to get vaccinated anywhere in the city as of Tuesday.
“Go get vaccinated … getting vaccinated is fundamental so you don’t get the disease,” Sheinbaum said.
Some 63 per cent of Mexico City residents have received at least one vaccine dose and 38.5per cent have had the two doses, as Sheinbaum’s government aims to have at least one dose given to 74per cent of residents and to have 41 per cent fully vaccinated by Jul 26.
Several days this week, Mexico posted its biggest daily increases in new COVID-19 infections since February, as a fresh wave of contagion threatened to undermine the government’s efforts.
Despite the new surge, Sheinbaum said Mexico City was not planning to re-impose confinement measures or suspend activities.
“We’re not aiming to reduce any activities: social, economic or cultural … The goal is to vaccinate,” said Sheinbaum.
In other development, bogus coronavirus immunisation certificates are being offered for sale in the Mexican capital, aimed at people traveling to countries that require proof of innoculation.
Customers for the fake COVID-19 vaccination certificates are usually people who want to travel but have not been fully immunised, or who received vaccines not recognised in the country they plan to visit, a vendor said.
“If they were vaccinated with the Chinese shots, here we change it for Pfizer or Sputnik V,” said the man, who gave his name as Cris, telling potential customers the price ranged from 1,100 to 2,000 Mexican pesos (US$55 to US$100).
Around 21 million people have been fully vaccinated in Mexico, a country of 126 million, which has used Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Cansino, Sputnik V and Johnson & Johnson shots.
Mexico’s health ministry recently announced that people who have been vaccinated can download an immunisation certificate for free through an official website to use when travelling or in other situations.
The official certificates have a QR code that redirects whoever scans it to a government page that confirms the holder is fully immunised. The counterfeiters offer to tamper with that code, but whether it actually works is unclear.
It is not the first fraudulent activity linked to the pandemic in Mexico, where Pfizer said in April fake vaccines had been found for sale under its brand name.
In Santo Domingo, forged laboratory tests with a negative COVID-19 result are also on sale for about US$30.
The falsification of official documents carries a prison sentence of four to eight years in Mexico, whose official coronavirus death toll of more than 235,000 is the world’s fourth highest. — NNN-AGENCIES
