Mexican court orders government to vaccinate more children

MEXICO CITY: A Mexican court has ordered health authorities to give more COVID-19 vaccinations to children aged 12 to 17, media reported on Wednesday, just as other countries have stepped up their inoculation of children.

The Mexican government has focused its vaccine campaign on adults, in addition to some especially vulnerable children, and about 40% of men and women are fully vaccinated overall.

Milenio newspaper reported that a federal court order from acting Judge Claudia Irene Gamez gives the health ministry five days to update its national vaccine plan to include 12- to 17-year-olds, threatening to file a complaint with prosecutors if the ministry failed to do so.

Reuters was not able to find the court ruling online and the health ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment after hours.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said this month he would seek to clarify an earlier court ruling that similarly ordered the government to begin expanded inoculations for children in the same age group.

The government said last month that it would inoculate up to a million children aged 12 to 17 who were especially vulnerable due to underlining health conditions like diabetes or cancer.

But it has balked at vaccinating healthy children.