Mexico City maintains high risk alert for Covid with increase of hospitalized patients
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The government of Mexico City advised this Friday that it would maintain the high alert level, or orange color in the epidemic traffic light, due to the risk of Covid-19 with an increase in hospitalizations, with 432 patients more than a week ago.
Even so, the head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, detailed that there will be no changes in the restrictions on economic activities, which allow sporting events, shows, restaurants, and other businesses. “No, nothing (of adjustments),” Sheinbaum responded to questioning at her daily press conference.
The federal government has recognized a third wave of contagion in Mexico, which has already accumulated almost 240,000 deaths and 2.8 million confirmed cases.
According to the Health Secretariat, the country’s capital concentrates almost a third of the 115,000 active cases nationwide, with nearly 34,800.
In addition, Mexico City has 75% general hospital occupancy and 77% intensive care unit (ICU) beds, according to the Serious Acute Respiratory Infection Network Information System (IRAG).
But the city’s administration has insisted that the growth in hospitalizations is decreasing. “We see at least a reduction in the speed of growth, and we have an installed capacity at the moment as of today, fully available, of 6,592 beds that can still grow quite a bit,” commented Eduardo Clark, general director of Digital Government.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador affirmed that “Mexico is not among the countries most seriously affected by the pandemic”.
The president showed in his morning conference a government graph that indicates that mortality in the third wave is 77 % lower than the first one in July 2020 and 87% lower than the second one last January.
“In America, in deaths, Mexico is in sixth place, so in general, sixth place in deaths per inhabitant, and in vaccination, we are in second place in America,” said López Obrador without citing the source of his data.
He also recalled the promise to vaccinate, with at least one dose, all the population over 18 years old by October. However, only 25 million people have so far completed the vaccination schedule in Mexico, which has 126 million inhabitants.
The city mayor reiterated that the capital’s strategy to contain the pandemic is vaccination, which is why positivity has decreased. “It is associated with vaccination, from our point of view. We have already reached 8.2 million doses applied; that is why we say that the goal is to vaccinate as soon as possible,” she said.
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