With 9.8 deaths per 100 confirmed coronavirus cases, Mexico has the highest fatality rate among the 20 countries currently most affected by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.
But Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said Sunday that the fatality rate has been on the wane since July and was about 3 deaths per 100 confirmed cases in recent weeks.
He said the availability of hospital beds for coronavirus patients and the resultant capacity to provide timely medical care were factors behind the reduction in the rate.
“Always having a hospital bed available can help to reduce the death rate,” Alomía told reporters at the Health Ministry coronavirus press briefing.
At the opening of a new hospital in Texcoco, México state, earlier on Sunday, President López Obrador said that no coronavirus patient has been unable to access medical treatment or a hospital bed because the health system hasn’t been overwhelmed during the pandemic.
“Of course it’s a pandemic of a terrible virus that has caused a lot of damage, a lot of pain and suffering but we’re overcoming it because the management [of the health crisis] was good, because people behaved very well,” he said.
The president said that about 50% of beds in the approximately 1,000 Covid hospitals across the country are still available despite a recent increase in infections. Mexico last week became the fourth country in the world to record 100,000 Covid-19 deaths but López Obrador said that doctors are now able to save more seriously ill patients.
“It’s a new stage now, … medical personnel have more experience [in treating Covid-19], we’re choosing the best hospitals [as designated Covid hospitals] so that patients can recover and [we can] reduce the number of deaths. That’s the main aim now,” he said.
Alomía reported 373 additional Covid-19 fatalities at the Sunday night press conference, lifting Mexico’s official death toll to 101,676. It was the first day since last Tuesday that the daily reported death toll was below 500.
Alomía also reported 9,187 new coronavirus cases, increasing the accumulated tally to 1,041,875. The daily tally was the second highest of the pandemic excluding the 28,115 cases reported on October 5 due to a change in the methodology used to determine whether a person is infected.
Mexico City leads the country for confirmed cases and deaths with 187,229 of the former and 16,870 of the latter.
Campeche, one of two states classified as green light “low” risk on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map, has recorded the lowest number of confirmed cases among the country’s 32 states with 6,703 as of Sunday. Baja California Sur has recorded the lowest number of Covid-19 deaths with 652.
The Health Ministry estimates that there are currently 45,445 active cases across the country. More than a quarter of the estimated cases – 12,683 – are in Mexico City, where an increase in hospitalizations of coronavirus patients triggered the implementation of slightly stricter restrictions.
Guanajuato ranks second for estimated active cases, with 3,444, followed by Nuevo León and México state, where 3,441 and 3,327 people currently have coronavirus symptoms.
Campeche has the lowest number of active cases with just 65, while Chiapas – the other green light state – has 108, according to Health Ministry estimates.
Source: Milenio (sp)
