Six states are close to recording zero growth in new coronavirus cases, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Monday as total cases across the country approached 350,000.
López-Gatell told reporters at the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing that new case numbers have begun to stabilize over the past three weeks in Mexico City, México state, Baja California, Chiapas, Michoacán and Sinaloa.
He predicted that those states will subsequently reach a phase in which new infections plateau at zero growth in percentage terms. After that case numbers will start to decline, he said.
López-Gatell said the coronavirus epidemic in Mexico continues to grow but emphasized that the pace at which it is growing is slowing.
“Reconciling the two ideas causes a little bit of confusion. … Do we have more cases today than yesterday? Yes, … but the difference in cases between today and yesterday if we compare it with the today and yesterday of last week and the week before is that it is less,” he said.
“The jump [in case numbers] between one day and the next is becoming proportionately smaller,” López-Gatell added, explaining that even when a large number of new infections is reported, the percentage increase in the size of the epidemic can continue to trend downward because the new cases are added to an increasingly larger number of total cases.
Earlier in the press briefing, Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally had increased to 349,396 with 5,172 new cases registered on Monday.
The percentage increase in total case numbers from Sunday to Monday was 1.5%, while Mexico’s epidemic grew 1.56% in the same period a week earlier and 1.9% over the same two days the week before.
In the first 20 days of July, total case numbers increased by 54.5% whereas in the same period of June they grew by 93.2%.
Of the almost 350,000 confirmed cases, 29,549 are considered active, meaning that number of people tested positive after developing coronavirus symptoms in the past 14 days.
Alomía said there are also 79,112 suspected cases across the country.
Based on past positivity rates, the Health Ministry estimates that Mexico’s accumulated case tally is 387,267 and that active cases number 46,820.
Alomía also reported that Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll had increased to 39,485 with 301 additional fatalities registered on Monday.
In the first 20 days of July, the Health Ministry reported a total of 11,716 Covid-19 deaths, an average of 586 per day. The death toll increased by 42% in the period.
By contrast, 10,851 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the first 20 days of June, an average of 543 per day. While the average number of deaths reported each day was lower than in the same period a month later, Mexico’s total number of Covid-19 fatalities increased by 109% between May 31 and June 20.
Mexico City continues to lead the country for Covid-19 deaths, with 8,253 as of Monday. México state ranks second, with 5,688 confirmed fatalities, followed by Baja California and Veracruz, where 2,361 and 2,188 people, respectively, have lost their lives to Covid-19.
Source: El Universal (sp)
