Chihuahua’s state health council announced Thursday that the state will return this weekend to the highest risk level on the national coronavirus stoplight system, the first state to do so.

Chihuahua state, whose lawmakers this week called upon the Foreign Affairs Ministry to do a better job of enforcing the land border closure between the U.S. and Mexico in order to prevent an epidemic in the state’s border cities, will return to the maximum risk red level.

Governor Javier Corral Jurado blamed family gatherings and poor compliance on public transit systems for a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have not had weeks as complicated as the ones we are going through now,” he said. “The last 15 days have been the darkest days of the pandemic in Chihuahua.”

In the last 24 hours, the state has seen 708 new cases reported, mainly in Ciudad Juárez — where two hospitals are reportedly full — as well as in Ciudad Chihuahua and Delicias.

Among the various measures being considered as part of the state’s return to the red level are instituting a weekend ban on alcohol sales. Corral said that authorities would be stepping up health and safety protocol enforcement to limit Covid spread, using police and health inspectors, who would be checking businesses to make sure that they are in compliance.

Starting this weekend, authorities will also be conducting inspections and raids on neighborhoods across the state with the most reported cases in order to put a stop to gatherings in homes, which have been pinpointed by health officials as a major cause of the virus’s spread statewide, due to guests not observing social distancing measures.

In addition, the state will increase vigilance on public transit to make sure that both operators and users are following mandated health and safety protocols.

Source: El Financiero (sp)