In recent days, infections by Covid-19 have been increasing in various segments of the Mexican population, one of them is children and adolescents, according to the most recent data issued by the federal Ministry of Health, a total of 10,439 new cases from January 1 to last 9 for a cumulative total of 244,364 infections.
The number of new cases is higher than that registered in the entire month of December 2021, when a total of 9,094 infections and November 8,862 were documented.
By age range, confirmed the SSA, the accumulated infections by Covid-19 until last January 9, 15.8% (38,684) corresponded to the population from 0 to 5 years old, 26.3% (64,200) to the population from 6 to 11 years and 57.9% (141,480) to the population from 12 to 17 years.
According to Inegi estimates, in this last age range there is a population in the country of 13 million 35,475 and according to information from the SSA there was, until December 11, an advance in inoculation of 56 percent.
“At this age, as we have shown, from the age of 15 is where the probability of having significant Covid disease changes significantly compared to those under 15 years of age,” said Hugo López-Gatell, undersecretary of the SSA.
covid permits
On the other hand, Luisa María Alcalde Luján, secretary of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) and Zoé Robledo, general director of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), announced that both institutions will undertake a “joint strategy” to prevent employers from refusing to receive Covid permits as authorized by Social Security, digitally, in order to break the chain of contagion.
In a joint message, officials explained that difficult times are being lived, and it has been detected that 66.9% are workers seeking the Covid test to process disability.
After pointing out that these types of measures have been implemented since 2020, as it was in March 2020, this way was found to break the chains of contagion; but this year there are other circumstances, “since last Monday the possibility of generating the permit as evidence for the employer was enabled on the IMSS page, so that the disability is covered.”
On the other hand, the STPS reported that the cost of the Covid tests should not be charged to the workers; however, employer sectors consider that this should not be an obligation of the employer either.
In any case, the health institutions are in charge of offering the tests, in this case the IMSS and ISSSTE, especially when the infections are massive, since the fees that are provided to the health institutions must also cover the tests, he commented. Adrián Castillo, partner of the labor law firm De la Vega & Martinez Rojas.
Labor specialists stressed that in Mexico it is not possible for a company to require its workers to be vaccinated so that they can work; however, “there are certain measures that can be adopted to create a safe work environment: Perform regular Covid tests on workers, which are allowed by the Federal Labor Law; promote teleworking as a form of work organization; Carry out permanent information campaigns about the pandemic and hygiene measures to prevent and encourage vaccination, allowing workers who come to be vaccinated to have enough time to do so or even proposing compensation to do so.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx