Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro has urged the federal government to adopt the fluid model for vaccinations used between April 28 and May 4 that saw 161,689 doses of the CanSino vaccine administered to the state’s teachers and educational personnel.
The system, through which teachers registered on the state’s Education Department website, and received notification of the time and place for their shot, worked smoothly, and should “serve as an example to other states in Mexico,” Alfaro said.
In a simplification of the process, teachers simply had to print out a QR code that was checked by personnel at the vaccine sites.
The difference between the state-operated model and that employed by the federal government in its program to inoculate the country’s over-60 population was made even more evident this week, when seniors in the Guadalajara municipality of the metropolitan were called to receive their second doses of the Pfizer vaccine. For whatever reason, the federal government had reduced the number of vaccine sites from nine to four, including only one drive-in location. This provoked administrative chaos and long delays, causing a torrent of complaints, not only at the locations, but across social media platforms. Vehicles attempting to get to the lone drive-in site at the University of Guadalajara CUCEI (Engineering and Sciences) campus became trapped in snarl-ups and lines of up to ten kilometers, according to some reports, with hundreds of seniors who had waited all day Tuesday and Wednesday unable to get shots after the vaccine supply ran out.
Alfaro said he hopes the appointment system will be adopted for the next age group earmarked for inoculations, 50 to59 year-olds, which are expected to start later this month.