A resumption of normal life could be possible in almost 1,000 municipalities across the country on May 18 because they have no or very few cases of Covid-19, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Monday.

“We have areas of the country that don’t have a significant transmission [of the disease],” López-Gatell said in a video message posted to social media.

“In those municipalities where there are no cases or very few cases,” the government will be able to lift most of the measures in place to limit the spread of Covid-19 before the rest of the country,” he said.

“When? From Monday, May 18. … In almost 1,000 municipalities … we can control the disease, the epidemic of Covid, using others measures that correspond to phase one. This will allow these regions … to recover normality,” López-Gatell said.

The deputy minister announced last week that the government’s social distancing initiative, including the suspension of all nonessential activities, would be extended by an extra month to May 30 but he flagged the possibility of lifting restrictions earlier in parts of the country where there has been little or no transmission of Covid-19.

In Monday’s video, López-Gatell made the surprise assertion that the number of coronavirus cases reported on a daily basis is decreasing and as a result Mexico’s epidemic curve is flattening.

“We have good news, we’re doing well. We are managing to reduce infections, this is what we call flattening the curve. … We have a flatter curve, this means we have fewer cases every day and with this … those people who have a serious disease because of Covid and need hospitalization [will be able to] find a space in the national health system,”  he said.

However, López-Gatell acknowledged at both the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Monday night and President López Obrador’s regular news conference on Tuesday morning that the rate of  Covid-19 infection is in fact accelerating, contradicting his earlier statement.

“Don’t think that we’re already coming out of the epidemic, by no means. We’re not even in the phase of reducing cases,” he said on Monday night.

Acknowledging that Covid-19 is now spreading quickly in the community, López-Gatell declared today that Mexico has now entered phase three of the coronavirus pandemic.

• Covid-19 cases by municipality are provided on this interactive map published by the Mexican Biodiversity Commission. But there are no assurances that the data is complete.

Source: Milenio (sp)