Almost 56,000 people have had Covid-19 in Mexico since the first case was detected at the end of February, according to Health Ministry estimates, a figure almost nine times higher than the number of confirmed cases of the disease in the country.
“We estimate that 55,951 people have had Covid-19,” Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said at the government’s coronavirus press briefing on Thursday night.
The estimate is derived from the sentinel surveillance system in which data about a disease is collected in certain locations and extrapolated to predict total numbers across the country. Health authorities are collecting data about confirmed and possible cases of Covid-19 at 375 different health care facilities.
The estimate presented on Thursday is more than two times higher than that presented last week when the Health Ministry estimated that there were 26,519 Covid-19 cases in Mexico.
Based on the estimated number of Covid-19 cases, the fatality rate in Mexico is 0.87 per 100 cases, López-Gatell said. If only confirmed cases of the disease are considered, the case fatality rate is a much higher 7.72.
Earlier in the press briefing, Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that the number of confirmed cases had increased by 450 to 6,297 and the coronavirus death toll had risen by 37 to 486.
He also said that there are 12,340 suspected cases of Covid-19 and that 101 deaths were possibly caused by the disease but have not yet been confirmed. If the deaths are found to have been caused by Covid-19, they will be added to the coronavirus death toll, Alomía said.
Hypertension, diabetes and obesity continue to be the most common existing health problems in those who have died.
Covid-19 patients aged 60 or older are three times more likely to die than those aged 25-59, according to Health Ministry data that shows that the fatality rate among the former cohort is 17.6 per 100 cases and 5.7 among the latter. The case fatality rate among people younger than 25 is 0.3.
With 1,828 confirmed Covid-19 cases and and 110 deaths, Mexico City is the worst affected entity in the country. México state ranks second for both cases and deaths with 695 and 46, respectively.
Baja California has the third highest number of cases with 505 but ranks fifth for deaths with 31. Sinaloa and Puebla have the third and fourth highest coronavirus death tolls in the country with 40 and 32 fatalities, respectively.
The Health Ministry also presented data from Google that showed that the number of people using public transit across Mexico has declined by about 63% since the government declared a health emergency at the end of March. Health promotion chief Ricardo Cortés said that Quintana Roo has recorded the biggest decline while Querétaro has seen the smallest decrease in public transit use.
Meanwhile, General Health Council secretary José Ignacio Sántos defended the council’s Bioethical Guide to Allocation of Critical Medicine Resources, asserting that it is “legally solid” and backed by experts.
The guide came under fire this week because it suggests that younger Covid-19 patients who need critical care should be prioritized over seniors when medical resources such as ventilators are limited.
Source: Milenio (sp)
