Top Latin-American city’s anti-Covid weapon of choice is Russian vaccine

Sputnik V, the Russia-developed vaccine against Covid-19, is the most-used among its peers in Mexico City, a senior city official has revealed. More than three million people there have received at least one dose of the jab. About 40% of all doses of vaccines administered in the Mexican capital were of the Russian brand.

The statistics came from Eduardo Clark, Director General of Mexico City’s Public Agency for Digital Innovations (ADIP). He spoke to the media last week as the city was announcing extending revaccination with booster jabs for the age group between 30 and 39 starting this Monday. Ten vaccination centers in Mexico City are offering AstraZeneca and Sputnik Light, the first dose of the two-shot Sputnik V vaccine, as booster shots, with five centers for each kind of jab.

There are seven vaccines against Covid-19 authorized for emergency use in Mexico. Over 80% of the capital’s population received at least one dose of the vaccine, with almost half of the 7.5 million eligible residents already boosted with a third shot, according to health authorities. Mexico City is revaccinating an age group each week and expects to reach a 60%-boosted target by the end of this week.

Clark, who falls into the 30-39 age bracket, indicated he will make a personal contribution to pushing the revaccination rate up, tweeting a text message he’d received with an invitation to get a jab, and commenting: “see you there.”

Briefing Mexican media on the epidemic last week, the official praised the high vaccination rate among city residents. He said the vaccines kept the number of serious cases and hospitalizations relatively low despite a high number of infections.

“If we had not been vaccinating, if people had not chosen to go and get vaccinated, even with a shorter wave, the health damage would have likely been much worse than a year ago,” Clark said.

There was a surge of Covid-19 cases in Mexico City with the introduction of the Omicron variant, but it was relatively short-lived and is now abating fast, according to the update.