Coronavirus restrictions have eased in Quintana Roo after the Caribbean coast state switched to medium risk yellow on the local stoplight system on Monday.
Essential businesses can now function at 100% of normal capacity while most retail stores can operate at 80%.
The maximum capacity level at hotels, restaurants, archaeological sites, theme parks and golf courses increased to 60% on Monday while gyms and sports centers can now operate at 70% capacity outdoors and 50% indoors.
Although restrictions have eased, virus mitigation measures such as wearing a face mask, social distancing and maintaining high personal hygiene levels remain essential, said Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín.
Although the vaccination of seniors has begun, it will be some time before enough people have been inoculated to achieve herd immunity, he said.
“When we reach 70% or 80% of universal vaccination, we’ll achieve herd immunity,” Joaquín said.
Quintana Roo, home to popular tourist destinations such as Cancún, Playa del Carmen and Tulum, has recorded just under 20,000 confirmed cases since the beginning of the pandemic and 2,339 Covid-19 deaths.
There are currently 340 active cases in the state, according to federal Health Ministry estimates, while 18% of general care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are occupied.
Although it switched to yellow on the state government stoplight map, Quintana Roo remains high risk orange on the federal map.
The Health Ministry will publish an updated map this Friday. There are two red light maximum risk states – Guanajuato and Guerrero – on the map currently in force, 21 high risk orange states, eight yellow light medium risk states and one green light low risk state – Chiapas.
In other Covid news:
• The national accumulated case tally rose to 2.04 million on Monday with 2,252 new cases reported. It was the lowest single day case tally since November 17. The official Covid-19 death toll rose to 180,536 with 429 additional fatalities registered.
There are just over 47,000 active cases in the country, according to Health Ministry estimates, a reduction of almost 60% compared to late January. The national hospital occupancy rate is 33% for general care beds and 36% for beds with ventilators.
More than 1.7 million Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccine doses have now been administered, mainly to health workers and seniors. A shipment of 200,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine arrived in Mexico City on Monday night and a consignment of almost 512,000 Pfizer doses reached the capital on Tuesday morning.
• The supermarket chain Soriana will extend Covid-19 testing services to 40 of its stores in seven states in the coming weeks.
According to a company statement, rapid antigen and PCR testing will be available in mobile modules and units in the parking lots outside stores in Mexico City, Nuevo León, Jalisco, México state, Querétaro, Coahuila and Puebla.
Soriana began offering testing services outside two Mexico City locations in January and extended the scheme to select Nuevo León locations earlier this month.
• The mayor of San Pedro Mixtepec, a Oaxaca municipality in Miahuatlán in the Sierra Sur region, died on Monday from complications related to Covid-19, the state Health Ministry said. Armando Vázquez, 52, had been on a ventilator in a regional hospital.
With his passing, 17 mayors in Oaxaca have now lost their lives to Covid-19, the newspaper Milenio reported. At least 20 others have tested positive for the infectious disease.
Oaxaca, currently orange on the stoplight map, has recorded just under 40,000 confirmed cases and 2,817 Covid-19 deaths, according to state government data. Health authorities reported 330 new cases across 77 municipalities on Monday, including 101 in Oaxaca city.
Source: El Universal (sp), El CEO (sp), Milenio (sp)
