Mexico’s official Covid-19 death toll passed 15,000 on Wednesday while the accumulated case tally recorded its biggest single-day jump.
The federal Health Ministry reported 708 additional fatalities, increasing the total number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths to 15,357. An additional 1,468 deaths are suspected to have been caused by the disease but have not yet been confirmed.
The Health Ministry also reported 4,883 confirmed coronavirus cases, lifting the accumulated case tally to 129,184. The number of new cases reported is 10% higher than the previous daily record of 4,442.
Active cases increased by almost 1,000 on Wednesday to 19,897 while there are also 53,608 suspected cases across the country. Almost 370,000 people have now been tested for Covid-19.
Mexico City continues to lead the country for accumulated Covid-19 cases, active cases and fatalities. The official death toll in the capital passed 4,000 on Wednesday and now stands at 4,106, a figure that accounts for 27% of all Covid-19 fatalities in Mexico.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that the epidemic curve for the greater Mexico City metropolitan area has reached a plateau with the number of new cases reported daily remaining stable over the past two weeks.
“The descent of the infection curve has stalled but it doesn’t have an upward pattern either,” he said.
López-Gatell said that coronavirus patients in the Mexico City metropolitan area who have been admitted to general care wards have remained in hospital for an average of seven days while hospital stays for those admitted to intensive care wards have averaged 23 days.
About four in five general care beds set aside for coronavirus patients in the capital are currently occupied while three in five of those with ventilators are in use.
While case numbers have plateaued in Mexico City, they are on the wane in some cities including Tijuana, Baja California; Cancún, Quintana Roo; Villahermosa, Tabasco; Acapulco, Guerrero; and Oaxaca city.
In contrast, the epidemic curve is on the rise in cities such as Culiacán, Sinaloa; Guadalajara, Jalisco; Monterrey, Nuevo León; and Mexicali, Baja California.
López-Gatell said that case numbers were decreasing in Culiacán until June 8 before beginning to rise again.
“Closures of public spaces must be reinforced in Culiacán and [residents] must remain in their homes,” he said.
The deputy minister urged people across the country to continue practicing social distancing and to maintain good personal hygiene habits.
The risk of coronavirus infection is currently at the maximum level in every state of the country, according to the government’s “stoplight” map.
A draft map for next week that was sent to state governors by the Health Ministry shows that every state except Tamaulipas will remain at the “red light” risk level, meaning that nonessential activities shouldn’t resume.
The stoplight for Tamaulipas, where there are currently 467 active coronavirus cases, switches to orange on the proposed map, which would reduce the infection risk level from maximum to high. Only 14% of general care beds and 19% of those with ventilators are currently occupied in the northern border state.
Four indicators are used to determine the stoplight color for each state: case number trends, hospital admission trends for coronavirus patients, hospital occupancy levels and Covid-19 positivity rates. Health authorities said last week that in the early stages of the “new normal,” a state will be allocated a red stoplight even if just one of the four indicators is red.
The final version of next week’s “stoplight” map will be presented on Friday.
Source: La Jornada (sp), Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)
