Mexicans Travel North for Their COVID19 Vaccine

Mexico is currently having a difficult time dealing with the pandemic. Mexico reportedly ramped up their vaccination as death tops 200,000. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador called it a race against time.

Mexico’s total death toll of 200,211  reported on Thursday was only behind Brazil and the US. Unfortunately, both Brazil and the US have larger populations. Experts believe that the real death toll could be around 300,000 considering the country’s low testing rate.

A funeral home worker Benigno Clemente Zarate thinks that “the numbers on the news are not correct”. He added that “we have had some jobs where two or three people have died in the same household”.

The death toll is no surprise considering Mexico’s low vaccination numbers. Mexico currently vaccinated less than 5% of its population.

The Biden administration is donating 2 million COVID19 vaccine doses to Mexico. The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the US arrived this weekend according to Mexico Velasco’s undersecretary of North American affairs.

Early in March, President Biden said that his administration is going to make sure that Americans get their vaccine. According to the Biden administration, American adults can have their vaccine by May. Biden also said that after vaccinating Americans, they are “going to help the rest of the world”.

Mexicans Traveling to the US for Vaccine

Because of Mexico’s situation, the rich and well-connected Mexicans found their way up north to have their COVID19 vaccine. You need to meet two criteria to get vaccinated in the US. You should either work in the US or reside in the US. However, things are not strict on vaccination sites.

There are no numbers of how many Mexicans received their vaccine from the US. In Florida alone, there were more than 128,000 “out-of-state” residents that were able to get the vaccine according to the latest numbers. And because of this, officials have tightened its ID requirements. Though this could potentially stop vaccine tourism, it could put undocumented workers at risk of not getting any vaccine.