Mexico hopes to achieve herd immunity “between August and September”

Mexico will achieve herd immunity against covid-19 between August and September, the undersecretary of Health and Mexican government strategist for the pandemic, Hugo López-Gatell, said on Tuesday.

This phenomenon occurs in a certain population when part of it, 75%, reaches immunity to a disease through previous infection or vaccination.

“We have calculated, according to the expected rate of vaccination, and the number of people we know who already have antibodies against covid, mostly due to infection, that we would be arriving around August with enough immune people so that, perhaps, between August and September the critical point of herd immunity is reached, which is 75%,” said the official.

He recalled that “absolutely everyone in a population does not need to have immunity.”

“It is enough that we have enough quantity so that in daily life the possibility that an infectious person meets someone who can be infected is minimal, is almost zero,” he added.

López-Gatell specified that for a virus like Sars-CoV-2 “three-quarters of the people who have immunity are needed, either because we suffered from covid or received the vaccine.”

Until this Tuesday, Mexico accumulates 220,746 deaths and 2.38 million infections, according to the Ministry of Health.

At the same time, the country is making progress in its vaccination program with 23,648,037 doses of vaccines applied, with a total of 10,838,217 complete schedules.

Immunization for now covers adults over 60, adults between 50 and 59, pregnant women, medical personnel, and educational personnel.

This Tuesday, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced an expansion of the vaccination points to complete the immunization of the entire population next October.

The president said that “more brigades are being formed and more vaccination centers will be installed to be able to fulfill this purpose of finishing all vaccination in October.”

According to the government vaccination plan presented in December 2020, which has been modified according to the arrival of doses, it was planned to conclude in March 2022 with the youngest.

Since December 23, it has received 29,790,255 doses from five pharmaceutical companies.