Mexico’s coronavirus case tally and Covid-19 death toll surged on Monday as a result of a change in the methodology used to determine whether a person is infected.

The case tally rose to 789,780 with 28,115 new cases reported, while the death toll increased to 81,877 with 2,789 additional fatalities registered.

Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía explained at the Health Ministry’s coronavirus press briefing on Monday night that statistics now include suspected coronavirus cases and deaths among people who had direct contact with a confirmed case but were not tested.

State authorities have been using the so-called “epidemiological association” method for the past two months, he said, but such cases and deaths had not been included in the official statistics until Monday, causing a record spike in the numbers.

Alomía also noted that the coronavirus statistics include cases and deaths among people who were not tested, didn’t have contact with a confirmed case but were deemed to be infected as a result of clinical examination.

Health authorities have previously explained that suspected Covid-19 deaths are assessed by an expert team to determine whether they should be attributed to the infectious disease. If there is sufficient evidence to determine that a fatality was caused by Covid-19, it is subsequently added to the official death toll.

Of the 789,780 coronavirus cases counted in Mexico since the start of the pandemic, 757,085 were confirmed by a test, 24,120 were established via epidemiological association and 578 were confirmed by clinical examination, according to Health Ministry data.

Mexico City continues to lead the country for coronavirus cases and Covid-19 deaths, with 133,961 of the former and 13,663 of the latter.

México state, which includes many municipalities in the greater Mexico City metropolitan region, ranks second in both categories with 86,117 cases and 9,873 deaths as of Monday.

Source: El Universal (sp)