For a second consecutive day a new single-day record for coronavirus cases was set on Thursday with more than 7,000 additional infections reported for the first time.

The federal Health Ministry reported 7,280 new cases, increasing Mexico’s accumulated tally to 282,283.

There are currently 29,129 active cases in the country, according to official data, the highest number recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. Suspected cases rose to 80,988, an increase of 95 compared to Wednesday.

The Health Ministry reported 730 additional Covid-19 fatalities, lifting the death toll to 33,526. There are also 2,283 fatalities that are suspected of having been caused by Covid-19 but which have not yet been confirmed.

Data shows that Mexico City has now recorded 55,344 confirmed cases since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, while neighboring México state ranks second for total cases with 40,957.

Six other states have exceeded 10,000 confirmed cases. They are Tabasco, Puebla, Veracruz, Sonora, Guanajuato and Baja California.

Mexico City also leads the country for active cases, with 4,271, followed by México state and Guanajuato, where 2,866 and 2,088 people, respectively, currently have coronavirus symptoms.

No other state has more than 2,000 active cases but seven have more than 1,000. They are Nuevo León, Veracruz, Tabasco, Jalisco, Coahuila, Yucatán and Puebla.

Mexico City has the highest Covid-19 death toll, having recorded 7,450 confirmed fatalities as of Thursday. México state ranks second for deaths, with 5,062, after passing the 5,000 mark on Thursday.

Baja California has the third highest Covid-19 death toll in the country, with 2,206 fatalities. Five states have death tolls in excess of 1,000. They are Veracruz, Puebla, Sinaloa, Tabasco and Guerrero.

Based on confirmed coronavirus cases and fatalities, the fatality rate in Mexico, which has the fifth highest death toll in the world, is currently 11.9 per 100 cases.

Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows the fatality rates for the other four countries in the top five for total Covid-19 deaths are: the United States, 4.3; Brazil, 3.9; the United Kingdom, 15.4; and Italy, 14.4.

With more than 555,000 confirmed Covid-19 deaths around the world and almost 12.3 million confirmed cases, the global fatality rate is 4.5.

A day after declaring that Mexico’s coronavirus epidemic is slowing down, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Thursday that case numbers are “on the rise” in most of the country.

His remarks came in response to a question from a reporter about record high coronavirus case numbers among children.

“We have to be very careful with numerical interpretation. Time and again I see that they talk about ‘record numbers’ in the newspapers. There is always a record number when the trend is upward and we continue with an epidemic that is still on the rise in the majority of federal entities except Mexico City,” López-Gatell said.

“Saying there is a record number serves no useful purpose; the record number of your age is today, yesterday you were a day younger. A phenomenon that is increasing will always be a record the next day.”

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