Sinaloa will switch to low risk green on the coronavirus stoplight map on Monday, while the risk level in México state will be downgraded to medium risk yellow.
Mexico City, which switched from high risk orange to yellow two weeks ago, will remain at the medium risk level for another fortnight, authorities said.
Just 17% of general care hospital beds in COVID wards in Sinaloa, which is currently yellow, are in use, according to federal data, while the occupancy rate is the same for beds with ventilators. The northern state has 717 active cases, or fewer than 25 per 100,000 people.
The only states with a lower number of active cases on a per capita basis are Chiapas, Chihuahua and Baja California.
Sinaloa Health Minister Efrén Encinas Torres said that vaccination and observance of virus mitigation measures have helped drive down case numbers over the past five weeks.
As a result of México state’s switch to yellow on the stoplight map, all businesses will be allowed to increase their maximum capacity to 70% of normal levels on Monday, Governor Alfredo del Mazo said in a video message.
He said that the progress made in vaccinating residents allowed his government to take the decision.
“Until now, we’ve administered more than 12.4 million vaccines,” he said, adding that all people over 30 have had the opportunity to be fully vaccinated.
Del Mazo also said that more than 1.3 million México state residents aged 18-29 have had a first shot and that hospitalizations are declining.
In other COVID-19 news:
• Mexico recorded 3,754 new cases on Friday and 190 COVID-19 deaths, increasing the accumulated tallies to 3.55 million and 270,538, respectively.
There are 72,172 estimated active cases across the country, a 10% decrease compared to Thursday. Tabasco has the highest number of active cases on a per capita basis with just over 200 per 100,000 people. Colima ranks second followed by Mexico City, Yucatán and Quintana Roo.
• The average number of new cases reported in Mexico each day has fallen by more than 6,700 over the last three weeks, according to the Reuters COVID-19 tracker.
An average of 9,870 new infections have been reported during the past seven days. “That’s 53% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on August 17,” Reuters said.
• Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez said on Twitter Friday morning that the northern state recorded 805 new cases and 39 deaths in the previous 24 hours.
Nevertheless, the state is making progress in the fight against COVID-19 “little by little,” the governor commonly known as “El Bronco” wrote.
“Yesterday, thanks to the reduction of new cases, we announced the opening of establishments that couldn’t yet operate, but that doesn’t mean that the virus has gone,” he said.
Rodríguez also posted a Doctor Strange-themed meme encouraging the use of face masks. “I have seen 14 million possible futures and only in the one in which we all use face masks do we defeat COVID-19,” the meme says.
• Nuevo León governor-elect Samuel García, who will succeed Rodríguez next month, predicted Thursday that, starting Monday, about 500 children per day will be vaccinated in McAllen, Texas, under a cross-border vaccination scheme he organized.
He said in an interview that Nuevo León adolescents will be inoculated with the Pfizer vaccine, the only shot authorized for use in children aged 12 and over.
Minors haven’t been vaccinated in Mexico with the exception of a small number of youths who have obtained injunctions ordering they be given the shot.
García said about 21,000 doses have already been administered in the cross-border scheme, which began busing Nuevo León factory workers to Laredo, Texas, last month and expanded to Mission this week.
• A shipment of 400,000 Sputnik V vaccines will arrive in Puebla next week, said state Health Minister José Antonio Martínez García. He said the shots will be used to inoculate poblanos aged 18 to 29.
Puebla currently has the highest occupancy rate in the country for general care hospital beds in COVID wards with almost 61% in use, according to federal data.
• Authorities in San Luis Potosí reported 359 new cases and 17 COVID deaths on Friday. Eighty-eight of the cases were detected in people who are fully vaccinated and 79 were detected in people who have had one shot.
The new cases were spread across 38 municipalities with the highest numbers in San Luis Potosí city.
With reports from Milenio, El Sol de San Luis, and El Universal
