MEXICO CITY, Mexico-- Some 97 percent of the patients hospitalized in Mexico for COVID-19 in the current wave of the pandemic are unvaccinated, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said on Tuesday.
"The vaccine has a very, very important protective effect in reducing the most serious forms of the disease ... where people need to be hospitalized," the official said when presenting a health report.
So far, just over 48 million people have been inoculated with at least one dose of available vaccines against COVID-19 in the country, Lopez-Gatell noted.
He also reiterated that unlike the other outbreaks, the third wave is less lethal and severe in its development.
The Mexican government aims to immunize by October everyone over 18 years old, or about 89.4 million people, with at least one vaccine dose.
As of Monday, Mexico had accumulated 2,861,498 COVID-19 cases and 241,279 deaths from the disease.