The decline in new coronavirus cases in Mexico has stalled due to the further reopening of the economy, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Friday.

Mexico City reported a record 1,367 new cases in a 24-hour period yesterday. 

“In weeks 33 and 34 [August 9-15 and 16-22] there was no decrease in the epidemic; this is certainly disconcerting because we all would like it to decrease until it disappears,” López-Gatell noted, conceding that for social and economic reasons “we cannot keep society permanently cloistered.” 

He also observed that some countries are seeing new case numbers spike at a rate that is higher than it was during the first outbreak, and a similar scenario could occur in Mexico.

“In European countries that began with the epidemic in the last two weeks of January or early February, there are very large outbreaks today,” he said. “This can happen at any time in a municipality, state, in the country or even worldwide,” he said.

The five states with the highest number of accumulated cases are Mexico City, the state of México, Guanajuato, Nuevo León and Veracruz, which together make up 41.5% of all cases registered in the country.

Mexico City, the state of México, Veracruz, Puebla, and Baja California continue to rank as the five states with the most deaths, 44.3% of the total.

Officials said Friday that the pandemic has hit Mexico so hard that one million new official death certificates are being printed and distributed after supplies in Baja California, the México state and Mexico City were nearly depleted

There were 6,196 new cases reported Friday, bringing the accumulated total to 623,090. Another 522 fatalities were reported, bringing that total to 66,851.

Source: Milenio (sp), El Financiero (sp)