According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Mexico has recently obtained the title of the country with the most deaths caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus in Latin America, during the last 24 hours.

It is also ranked number 2 in terms of diagnosed infections during the same period of time.

Cristian Morales, WHO representative in Mexico, informed during a forum led by the Secretariat of Health (SSa) that of the 22 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the world, 38% belong to Latin America, as well as 47% of the 4.6 million deaths counted worldwide.

"At 3:40 p.m. yesterday, Mexico was the country with the second highest number of reported cases in the Americas in the last 24 hours, and the first in the number of deaths," said Morales.

The official called on Mexican authorities to continue carrying out the appropriate strategies to attend to all those infected and to promote the massive vaccination campaign to a greater extent, assuring that this situation will continue for a long time.

Morales mentioned that it was likely that occasionally, once the pandemic is controlled and becomes "endemic", annual vaccination campaigns will be required in order to prevent another similar situation.

Therefore, it should be noted that pharmacovigilance will become a fundamental element to ensure reliable access to anti-COVID vaccines, indispensable tools that will produce new evidence on drug safety.

The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López Gatell, highlighted at the inauguration of the event to present the Plan to Strengthen the National Pharmacovigilance Strategy that it is the task of the Federal Commission for Protection against Health Risks (Cofepris) to dedicate itself to ensuring the common good and the interests of individuals, even more so in times of pandemics.

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