In the coming days, Mexico will apply booster doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to people over 65 years of age, after detecting the first case of the Omicron variant in the country.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced yesterday, Saturday, at a press conference that health authorities are already working on the plan to apply this additional dose of the drug: “It is very likely that we will start with the booster vaccine as of next Tuesday,” he said.
“We are going to reinforce vaccination because that is what has been shown to help,” he said.
AMLO explained that this reinforcement will be applied due to the arrival of winter and the presence in Mexico of the Omicron variant, declared as a health “concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).
AMLO complained, “There was a lot of sensationalism (about Ómicron), people got scared, and the economy was also affected. There was a depreciation of currencies, nervousness in financial markets.”
On Friday, health authorities confirmed the first case of the Omicron variant in a 51-year-old South African who arrived in Mexico on November 21, and although he is hospitalized as a precaution, he is not presenting major symptoms.
Since the spread of COVID-19 began in early 2020, AMLO has dismissed the dangerousness of the virus, and has rarely used a mask. Last January he contracted it, but had mild symptoms.
The losses in the financial markets may well have changed his response this time.