Mexico City will remain high-risk orange on the coronavirus stoplight map for a 12th consecutive week between May 3 and 9 even though the hospital occupancy level continues to trend downward.

City government official Eduardo Clark said the capital is close to switching to medium-risk yellow but the change won’t occur on Monday as authorities previously suggested could happen.

Nevertheless, the government announced that opening hours for restaurants will extend until 11:00 p.m. in outdoor dining areas and 10:00 p.m. indoors. The maximum permitted capacity at restaurants will increase from 30% to 40% of normal levels.

Mexico City still has more than 8,000 estimated active coronavirus cases and recorded more than 1,100 new cases on Thursday, but the number of hospitalized Covid patients declined by 437 over the past week. There are currently just under 1,700 in Mexico City hospitals, for an occupancy level of 20%, Clark said.

There are almost 2,200 patients in hospitals in the greater metropolitan area, which includes numerous México state municipalities.

Clark said the percentage of Covid-19 tests in the capital that come back positive is also on the wane, currently hovering around 5%–7%.

Mexico City has recorded almost 640,000 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic, a figure that accounts for 27% of the country’s accumulated case tally, which currently stands at 2.34 million. The capital’s Covid-19 death toll is 41,836, or 19% of total fatalities in Mexico, which officially number 216,447.

Mexico City is currently one of six states painted orange on the federal government’s stoplight map, which took effect Monday and will remain in force until May 9. Twenty states are medium-risk yellow and six are low-risk green.

The national coronavirus situation has improved considerably this month, with both new cases and deaths declining compared to March. The vaccine rollout continues, but Mexico still has a long way to go to inoculate the entire adult population.

As of Thursday night, 17.35 million doses had been given, mainly to health workers and seniors. The government reported earlier this week that all of Mexico’s approximately 15 million seniors had had the opportunity to be vaccinated against Covid-19, but some 4 million decided not to get a shot.

However, it appears likely that many seniors could have missed their shots due to lack of communication.

A Mexico News Daily reader in Hermosillo, Sonora, said he and his wife registered on the vaccination website on February 6. The couple, as well as a neighbor, are still waiting to be contacted.

Vaccination of people in the 50-59 age bracket is scheduled to start next week.

Source: El Economista (sp)