Illinois Newsroom
Jose Martinez, a resident of Cobden, Ill., gets the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Feb. 27 at a temporary vaccination clinic.
Illinois and some other states have prioritized farmworkers in their coronavirus vaccine plans. For many migrant workers from Mexico, this means they could receive the vaccine a year earlier than in their home country.
On a recent Saturday, white vans shuttled small groups of migrant farmworkers from the southern Illinois orchard where they work to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church. The workers had arrived days earlier from Mexico for the start of the tilling season.
Many attend St. Joseph’s Spanish-language service during their months-long stay in the rural village of Cobden. But on this day, they came to the church, not for Mass, but to receive the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
We re Very Grateful : For Some Farmworkers, U S Work Visas Provide Opportunity For Vaccination wfyi.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wfyi.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero will temporarily serve as his deputy while he recovers, López Obrador said.
The Mexican president, who suffered a heart attack in 2013, has refused to wear a mask in public and told reporters last month that everyone is free. He also said, If using a mask makes a person feel safer, then go ahead.
López Obrador has said he would wait until late February to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
Those who have criticized the Mexican leader s handling of the pandemic expressed little surprise at his diagnosis. One even expected or assumed, because of his way of exposing himself to so many people and not wearing a mask, that he would have been infected earlier, Carlos Magis Rodríguez, professor of medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told The New York Times.