Stricter coronavirus restrictions could be implemented in Mexico City due to an increase in the number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum told a press conference Monday that hospitalizations have been on the rise in the capital for almost 10 days.
She said authorities are monitoring the situation and that if hospitalizations continue to increase this week, tighter coronavirus rules would be announced Friday.
Sheinbaum said that she didn’t want to prohibit any economic activities that have already been allowed to resume – among which are the operation of bars, cinemas and gyms – but suggested that the opening hours of some businesses could be reduced or they could be limited to operating only on certain days.
“What we don’t want [to do] is to … shut down any activity. Rather some additional preventative actions [could be implemented]. If that is the case, we’ll be announcing them this Friday,” she said.
“We still have time to take preventative measures to keep [hospitalizations] from increasing in the coming weeks,” the mayor said.
There were 2,746 Covid-19 patients in Mexico City hospitals on Sunday including 683 people on ventilators. The former figure is 155 higher than October 9 when 2,591 Covid-19 patients were in hospitals in the capital.
Sheinbaum said that patient numbers have increased at both public and private hospitals.
Despite the uptick, fewer than half of all general care beds set aside for coronavirus patients in Mexico City are occupied and only one-third of those with ventilators are in use.
The number of Covid-19 patients in hospitals in the capital is well below the peak in May when 4,573 people were being treated in healthcare facilities.
Mexico City has been the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the beginning of the pandemic, and has recorded far more confirmed cases and Covid-19 deaths than any other state.
As of Monday, 147,663 people had tested positive for Covid-19 in the capital and 14,425 people had lost their lives to the disease, according to official data.
There are currently 8,253 active coronavirus cases in Mexico City, according to Health Ministry estimates, more than double the number in Nuevo León, which has the the second largest active outbreak among Mexico’s 32 states.
Sheinbaum urged Mexico City residents to remember that the threat of coronavirus infection hasn’t gone away.
“It’s very important for all of us to know that … the pandemic is continuing. … We have to keep protecting ourselves,” the mayor said, warning people not to drop their guard during the upcoming Day of the Dead holiday.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated coronavirus case tally increased to 854,926 on Monday with 3,699 new cases registered by health authorities. The official Covid-19 death toll rose to 86,338 with 171 additional fatalities reported.
New case numbers rose in eight states at the start of October, but Covid-19 deaths are on the wane across the country.
National data presented at Sunday night’s coronavirus press conference showed that 29% of general care hospital beds set aside for Covid-19 patients were occupied while 25% of those with ventilators were in use.
Source: El Universal (sp)
