Mexico now has the sixth highest Covid-19 death toll in the world after passing Spain’s total on Wednesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
The federal Health Ministry reported 741 additional fatalities at Wednesday night’s coronavirus press briefing, increasing Mexico’s official death toll to 28,510 – 146 more than that of Spain.
The only countries that have recorded more Covid-19 fatalities than Mexico are the United States, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy and France.
The Health Ministry also reported 5,681 additional confirmed coronavirus cases, increasing the accumulated tally to 231,770.
As a result, Mexico overtook Iran to rank 10th in the world for total Covid-19 cases but new cases reported in the west Asian country on Thursday lifted it back into 10th place.
Mexico currently ranks 11th for total cases, according to Johns Hopkins University’s Covid-19 dashboard, behind the United States, Brazil, Russia, India, the United Kingdom, Peru, Chile, Spain, Italy and Iran.
More than 10.7 million people had tested positive for Covid-19 around the world as of Thursday morning and over 516,000 had lost their lives to the disease.
Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said that 24,734 confirmed cases in Mexico are considered active, an increase of 952 compared to Tuesday.
There are also 75,005 suspected cases across the country, while almost 596,000 people have been tested.
Medical personnel account for 20% of all confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mexico, according to Health Ministry data that shows that 46,013 health workers have been infected.
Alomía said that 683 health workers have lost their lives to the infectious disease, 2.4% of Mexico’s Covid-19 death toll.
The Health Ministry reported on June 23 that 584 health workers had died since the beginning of the pandemic, meaning that an additional 99 fatalities were registered in the space of just eight days.
Alomía said that Mexico City, México state, Puebla and Veracruz have recorded the highest number of deaths among health workers.
To ensure that Mexico has sufficient medical personnel to respond to the pandemic, almost 50,000 additional health workers have been recruited, said Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell.
He said the majority of new recruits are general physicians and that they are working under the supervision of specialist doctors.
National data shows that 44% of general care hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are currently occupied while 39% of those with ventilators are in use.
López-Gatell said Tuesday that Mexico’s coronavirus pandemic is at its peak and that a large number of infections and hospitalizations are occurring every day.
Mexico City currently has the largest outbreak, according to official data, with 3,469 active cases. Even though the capital leads the country for active cases, hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients have recently trended downwards and coronavirus restrictions are being gradually eased this week.
México state has the second largest outbreak, with 2,207 active cases, while seven states have more than 1,000 active cases. They are Guanajuato, Puebla, Nuevo León, Veracruz, Tabasco, Yucatán and Coahuila.
The coronavirus infection risk level is currently set at “orange light” high in Mexico City and 17 states, a stoplight color that allows some restrictions to be eased. The other 14 states currently face “red light” maximum risk restrictions.
The Health Ministry will present an updated “stoplight” map on Friday with the corresponding restrictions to take effect starting Monday.
Source: El Financiero (sp), Milenio (sp)
