Mexico will have seven green light low risk states during the next two weeks after the federal Health Ministry presented an updated coronavirus stoplight map on Friday.
Coahuila, Jalisco, Nayarit, Tamaulipas and Veracruz will all switch to green on Monday, joining Campeche and Chiapas.
Sonora, which switched to green two weeks ago, will regress to medium risk yellow after the Health Ministry deemed that the coronavirus situation had deteriorated in the northern state.
Yellow is the predominant color on the updated map with the coronavirus risk level designated as medium in a total of 18 states.
The yellow light states for the next two weeks will be Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Michoacán, Morelos, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis PotosÃ, Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tlaxcala and Zacatecas.
Fourteen of those states are already yellow while Morelos, Oaxaca and Tabasco will switch from high risk orange and Sonora will switch from green.
The number of orange states declines to seven on the new map from eight on the one currently in force.
Mexico City, México state, Puebla, Querétaro and Yucatán are already orange and will remain that color for the next two weeks while Hidalgo and Chihuahua will switch from yellow.
For the third consecutive fortnight there will be no red light maximum risk states between March 29 and April 11.
Each stoplight color, determined by the Health Ministry using 10 different indicators including case numbers and hospital occupancy levels, is accompanied by recommended restrictions to slow the spread of the virus but it is ultimately up to state governments to decide on their own restrictions.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally increased to just under 2.22 million on Friday with 5,303 new cases reported. The official Covid-19 death toll rose by 651 to 200,862.
None of Mexico’s 32 states has hospital occupancy levels above 50% for general care or critical care hospital beds and the vast majority have rates below 30%.
Just under 6.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses had been given by Friday night, mainly to health workers and seniors. About 4.8 million people aged 60 and over have received at least one shot, meaning that over 10 million seniors remain unvaccinated.
President López Obrador said last week that all of Mexico’s seniors will receive at least one dose by the end of April, a target that has shifted several times.
Mexico News DailyÂ
