Covid infections in minors multiply in Mexico in the first weeks of 2022

A young man goes to take a covid test in Acapulco (Guerrero). David Guzmán (EFE)

In the midst of the fourth wave of coronavirus, infections and deaths among minors due to covid-19 continue unabated in the country. Until January 16, 826 child deaths and 86,586 infections were reported. Far from decreasing cases, during the first weeks of the year 3,609 new infections were reported among children, according to the most recent report of the National System for the Comprehensive Protection of Children and Adolescents (Sipinna) with data from the Ministry of Health. The presence of the omicron variant, together with the fact that this segment of the population is not fully vaccinated, increases the vulnerability of minors against the multiple variants of the virus.

The states with the most infections per 100,000 inhabitants are Tabasco, Mexico City, Baja California Sur, Guanajuato and Querétaro.

In the breakdown of the figures, 57% correspond to children between 12 and 17 years old, while 24% of the cases occurred in infants between 6 and 11 years old and the rest in children between 0 and 5 years old.

In Mexico City, pediatric hospitals report more and more consultations by parents with their minors in the face of the uncertainty of not knowing if that cough and runny nose is due to covid-19, influenza, or is it just a simple flu.

"Yes, there is more movement, but we don't really know, because every patient who comes with a temperature follows the same reservation protocol to find out if they have covid," says an employee of the Federico Gómez Children's Hospital who requested anonymity to avoid reprisals.

Outside this specialized center, a dozen parents await their children's pediatric consultations. Simón Hernández has been in this place all morning waiting for his wife and 14-year-old daughter to come out of the chemotherapy session for the minor, who suffers from leukemia. The man, a native of Huatusco (Veracruz), acknowledges that he is afraid that his daughter, who cannot be vaccinated due to her condition, will contract the coronavirus inside the hospital or on the weekly trips they have to make to treat her condition. “Well, it is scary, but they cannot give him the vaccine because it is very strong and what do we have left, what do we do, he has to come to his consultations,” says Hernández.

The figures and the uncertainty of the parents are on the rise, while the Government continues to minimize the infections of minors. The Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, assured this week that the return to face-to-face classes has not been relevant in the rebound in minor infections. The increase in cases, according to the official, is due to the omicron variant. "It was not for opening the schools where the infections began, during the holidays is when the epidemic began, as in adults, to rebound," he declared this week at the usual Executive conference at the National Palace.

The differences between the state and federal authorities on the return to schools has reached its peak this week, when at least 12 states have decided to keep them closed. The infectologist Alejandro Macias explains that minors are more exposed from face-to-face classes and supports local decisions to postpone the return to classrooms. “There is no doubt that if the children leave the house and have contact with groups of people they will have more risks of contagion, what surprises me is that if we had already had two years, practically of confinement and virtual activities with the children, what did it cost us to wait another two weeks, which is more or less how long the omicron peak in the city is expected to last”he comments.

For the doctor and researcher Andreu Comas, the decision about returning to classes must be evaluated in each municipality and school.

“There will be schools that do meet the conditions to be able to return and others in which it will definitely not be possible to return, but each community will have to assess that,” he points out.

Although in Chile vaccination starts from the age of three or in the United States immunization has begun from the age of five, in Mexico the federal government has not changed its position and only contemplates the application of the doses against covid-19 from the age of 12. Since the pandemic began to date, Mexico has accumulated more than 300,000 deaths from covid and 4.5 million infections, according to official figures. However, the Ministry of Health itself acknowledges that there are tens of thousands more who do not appear in the count that has been carried out day by day.

Comas warns that since last June and to date there has been a constant increase in cases in children between 10 and 19 years of age and an unfortunate number of deaths, more than 800 children killed due to the virus.

“It is a disease preventable by vaccination, so not even one death is acceptable, in addition, the population with the longest life expectancy is being lost, which in the long run is more productive and is generating a psychosocial disorder with deaths of children that they should not die”, he concludes.

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