Coronavirus case numbers declined during 16 consecutive weeks to early November, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.
Speaking at President López Obrador’s regular news conference, López-Gatell said case numbers declined 7% in epidemiological week 44, which ran from October 31 to November 6.
“[We’ve had] 16 continuous weeks of reductions,” he said before acknowledging that the week 44 decline wasn’t as significant as those recorded in previous weeks.
Mexico is currently in week 46 but data for the two most recent weeks is not considered reliable for epidemiological purposes because it may be incomplete and subject to change.
López-Gatell also said that hospitalizations of COVID-19 patients continues to trend down. Compared to the hospital occupancy peak in January – the worst month of the pandemic for COVID-19 deaths – the number of patients current receiving hospital treatment is down 90%, he said.
The deputy minister also reported that 129.8 million vaccine doses have been administered across Mexico. He said 75.5 million people have received shots and 84% of that number are fully vaccinated. López-Gatell also said the government will offer vaccines to youths aged 15 to 17, although he didn’t say when inoculation will begin.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally is currently 3.84 million after 775 new infections were reported Monday. The official COVID-19 death toll rose by 57 to 291,147. There are 22,113 estimated active cases, including more than 3,000 in Mexico City and over 2,600 in Baja California, the only high risk orange state on the federal government’s coronavirus stoplight map.
Mexico News Daily