Hospital admissions of coronavirus patients have exceeded the projections of the Health Ministry in seven cities, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Monday, as Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll passed 10,000.
Speaking at the nightly coronavirus press briefing, López-Gatell said that intensive care hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients have exceeded forecasts for the Valley of México metropolitan area, which includes Mexico City and several México state municipalities.
Hospital admissions of seriously and/or gravely ill Covid-19 patients have also been higher than predicted in Villahermosa, Tabasco; Cancún, Quintana Roo; Acapulco, Guerrero; Culiacán, Sinaloa; Tijuana, Baja California; and Veracruz city.
López-Gatell said that Covid-19 cases are on the wane in the Valley of México, the country’s coronavirus epicenter, but are still above the numbers originally predicted.
The peak of the pandemic is still to come in several cities including Guadalajara, Jalisco, and Monterrey, Nuevo León, the deputy minister said.
The peak in the Jalisco and Nuevo León capitals is several weeks away, he said, adding that the epidemics in the two cities “will be the last [in the country], according to the predictions” and could continue until October.
Earlier in the press briefing, Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll had increased to 10,167 with 237 additional fatalities registered on Monday.
The total number of deaths is also well over projections. López-Gatell said May 4 that 6,000 people were predicted to die of Covid-19.
Just over a quarter of those confirmed to have died from Covid-19 did not have any identified existing health conditions that made them more vulnerable to the disease, according to Health Ministry data. Of that number, 1,482 patients were aged under 60, meaning that their age didn’t make them more susceptible either.
Of the 74% of deceased Covid-19 patients with existing health problems, 42% suffered from hypertension, 38% had diabetes and 27% were obese. Other patients who died had a history of smoking and/or suffered from kidney problems, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cardiovascular disease, immunosuppression, asthma or HIV.
Mexico City has the highest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 2,713 fatalities as of Monday, followed by México state and Baja California, where 1,168 and 871 people, respectively, have lost their lives to the disease.
Alomía also reported that Mexico’s accumulated case tally had increased to 93,435 with 2,771 new cases registered on Monday. Of that number, 16,303 are considered active, a decrease of 659 compared to Sunday.
There are also 38,497 suspected cases across the country while 282,089 people have now been tested.
Mexico City currently has the largest identified active outbreak with 3,975 cases, followed by México state and Tabasco, where there are 1,921 and 853 cases, respectively.
Seven other states currently have more than 500 active cases: Puebla, Chiapas, Veracruz, Jalisco, Sinaloa, Guanajuato and Baja California.
López-Gatell said that there has been an uptick in cases in Villahermosa, probably due to an increase in people’s mobility, and that the virus remains very active in Mexicali, the capital of Baja California.
At the municipal level, Mexicali has the fourth largest active outbreak in the country with 465 identified cases, while Centro (Villahermosa) ranks fifth with 408 cases.
The two largest municipal level outbreaks are in the Mexico City boroughs of Iztapalapa and Gustavo A. Madero, with 814 and 653 cases, respectively, while Puebla city ranks third with 476 cases.
