Government announces Covid vaccination certificates available online

The federal government announced Tuesday that people vaccinated in Mexico against Covid-19 could download a digital certificate as official proof of their vaccination status, but many people were unable to complete the process.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told the president’s Tuesday morning press conference that people who are fully vaccinated could access the certificates on a Health Ministry website.

“If you want to have official proof that you have been vaccinated, … [the certificates] are there,” he said.

The coronavirus point man said that each certificate states the vaccine with which they were inoculated and the date or dates on which they received the shot.

Downloading the certificate – which also has a QR code – is especially important for international travelers as it may be needed to prove one’s vaccination status in certain countries, López-Gatell said.

However, numerous Mexicans found it impossible to obtain the certificate and took to social media to vent their frustration. After entering their CURP identity number on the certificate website, many people were told to “wait a few minutes and try again.”

However, their repeated attempts were repeatedly met with the same message. It was unclear whether the problem was related to heavy traffic on the site.

Other people complained they received a message saying there was no available data to generate their certificate even though they are fully vaccinated.

One social media user responding to López-Gatell’s Twitter post announcing the website said her husband’s certificate said he was immunized with the Pfizer vaccine when he actually received Sputnik shots.

People who are able to successfully log into the website will be sent an email containing a link to another site where they can download their vaccination certificate.

There are 19.9 million fully vaccinated people in Mexico, the Health Ministry said Tuesday, and just over 33 million have received at least one shot. The latter figure accounts for 37% of the adult population, the ministry said. López-Gatell said Wednesday that just under 48.5 million vaccine doses have been administered across the country.

Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally rose by 7,989 on Tuesday, the biggest single-day jump since late February, and the death toll increased by 269.

The Health Ministry’s announcement of the high case tally came after López-Gatell acknowledged Tuesday morning that Mexico had entered a third wave of the pandemic. Reported case numbers increased 53% in June compared to May and Covid-19 deaths rose 42%.

Mexico’s accumulated case tally currently stands at just under 2.55 million, while the official death toll is 233,958, a figure considered a vast undercount due to low Covid-19 testing rates.

The Health Ministry government last week published excess mortality data that showed that more than 447,000 fatalities were attributable to Covid-19 but has not updated its official death toll to reflect those numbers.