Turtles are a popular target of wildlife traffickers.
Wildlife protection officials are blaming hard economic times brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic for skyrocketing numbers in wild animal trafficking cases in 2020, as some people may be turning to the criminal activity to survive.
Between 2019 and 2020, the number of federally protected animals seized by the environmental protection agency Profepa rose 660%, although much of that increase was due to just three large raids by the agency this year.
“In 2019, Profepa confiscated [about] 5,000 protected species, and so far in 2020, in just three [raids], the number was almost 33,000,” said Ernesto Zazueta, president of the Association of Zoos, Breeders, and Aquariums (Azcarm), who is trying to get legislation passed to increase penalties for wildlife trafficking.
In a raid on November 26 in the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City, authorities confiscated 15,000 animals of various species, many of them protected. The animals being housed in overcrowded conditions included turtles, crocodiles, toucans, parrots and Gila monsters.
According to the newspaper Milenio, turtles are the main species being trafficked.
The sharp increase in numbers mirrors increases in animal trafficking worldwide. According to the international body Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the coronavirus pandemic’s resulting economic downturns have coincided with an increase in wild animal trafficking in communities near national parks and wild animal refuges. People are resorting to trafficking to survive, the organization said in a recent report.
“Tourism has been decimated due to travel restrictions, and thus more people that depend on it to make a living can be pushed toward illegal hunting and wild animal trafficking,” the report said.
Worldwide, studies estimate that wildlife trafficking garners US $27 billion annually, Zazueta said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has encouraged the trafficking problem in other ways as well. According to Global Initiative, traffickers in China and Laos are selling products made from rhinoceros tusks as a supposed cure for the coronavirus.
In Mexico, Zazueta said, other factors have compounded its wildlife trafficking problem: Profepa’s 2020 budget was only 75% of what it was in 2018.
“The way I see it, trafficking has also increased because much of Profepa’s budget has been taken away,” he told Milenio. “They have very few inspectors and can’t be searching for traffickers, and the traffickers know that. At times [the inspectors] don’t even have money for gasoline,” he said.
Increased animal trafficking poses more than just the risk to endangered species. It also increases the possibility of diseases jumping between animals and humans. In a report in April, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) explicitly linked the illegal wildlife trade and the threat of emerging human diseases.
“Wildlife crime endangers the health of our planet — and our own health,” UNODC executive director Ghada Waly said. “For the sake of preserving biodiversity and preventing the next public health emergency, the illegal wildlife trade must stop.”
Scene of the accident that killed five people in Puebla in 2018.
Authorities have arrested four people in connection with a 2018 helicopter crash that killed five people, including the governor of Puebla.
All four were employees of Rotor Flight Services, a company that provided maintenance to the Agusta A-109 aircraft, which crashed near the city of Puebla shortly after takeoff on Christmas Eve 2018.
Among the passengers were then-governor Martha Érika Alonso and her husband Rafael Moreno Valle, who preceded his wife as governor and was a senator at the time of the accident. Alonso had been sworn in as governor just 10 days before the accident in an election that was disputed by the Morena party, which alleged electoral fraud.
The crash raised suspicions of sabotage but a federal investigation concluded earlier this year that there was no evidence of sabotage but there were two loose screws in the rotor’s linear actuator, which caused the helicopter to roll unexpectedly.
The four suspects are under investigation for homicide and making false statements. The arrests were made in Mexico City, México state, Hidalgo and Puebla.
Dried salted cod is used in the traditional Christmas dish bacalao a la vizcaína.
I know that it’s a few days out from Christmas when my husband announces it’s time to go the market and buy dried salted cod. He can forego some Mexican traditions, but this is not one of them.
The cod is for a dish called bacalao a la vizcaína (Biscay-style cod), often just simply called bacalao. It, along with romeritos con mole (seepweed in mole sauce), are the Spanish and indigenous stars of Mexican Christmas meals. No holiday table, even one limited to immediate family during a pandemic, is complete without at least one of the two.
The dishes’ role came about during the evangelical period in Mexico. Although the sword was certainly used, the Spanish also imposed Catholicism by co-opting similar traditions and rituals. In the Aztec Empire, the birth celebrations of the god Huitzilopochtli, celebrated around the winter solstice, provided such opportunities.
This included a special midwinter feast. Like much of the Catholic world, families today in Mexico gather on Christmas Eve with the “birth” of Jesus occurring at midnight. This birth might be celebrated at Mass or at home, but in either case, it means adding an image of the infant Jesus to the home nativity scene.
Like elsewhere around the world, the dinner that accompanies this ritual is very much a family affair. One interesting note is that this feast is often repeated on New Year’s Eve in Mexico rather than going out to get drunk.
Bacalao’s Spanish green olives and capers betray the dish’s colonial roots.
In many cases, Mexican dishes evolved with a mix of Old and New World ingredients; this is not entirely the case with bacalao and romeritos. The two dishes have mostly conserved their original recipes.
Abstaining from meat is a kind of penance, but those who could afford to substituted fish because seafood was not considered meat. The demand for seafood in locales far from bodies of water drove a centuries-long industry for salted and dried cod, as well as associating this cod with holiday eating.
The Spanish brought the concept and prestige of cod with them to Mexico, and the Biscay stew recipe became the norm for the Christmas holiday. That recipe, with its use of green olives and capers, rarely found in Mexican cuisine, betrays its Spanish roots. The only modifications made since the dish’s introduction have been the inclusion of tomatoes and pickled güero chile peppers from the New World.
Romeritos con mole is the indigenous contribution to the Christmas table. The dish is very old, with a version of it documented shortly after the Conquest by historian Fray Bernardino de Sahagún. Romeritos are one of many edible greens that grow naturally in and around tilled fields. They played an important role in the diets of the indigenous and later the poor, who had little access to meat or other animal products. The mole sauce would be adopted by the Spanish, who put it on turkey and other fowl but considered romeritos nothing more than weeds.
But the dish was and is special. Firstly, the greens were associated with the birth of Huitzlopochili. In addition, it took much time and effort to grind the seeds and dried chile peppers for the mole. The dish can still be served in all its vegetarian glory, but it too has suffered some modification: there are now versions that add reconstituted dried shrimp or a kind of “meatball” of dried shrimp mixed with egg and flour.
While both dishes are traditional, bacalao holds the upper hand on the Christmas table, likely due to its historical association with the Spanish elites. Such cod is still expensive, with that fished from Norwegian waters most prized. The whitest flesh commands the highest price.
Romeritos, once an indigenous vegetarian food, is often made with shrimp now.
In fact, the demand is such that shark or even endangered fish species often masquerade as bacalao in Mexican markets. Shark impostors can be identified by their yellow flesh.
Because it is bought salted and dried, Christmas bacalao preparation must start days in advance. The fish needs to be rehydrated, but the water also needs to be changed various times to remove as much of the salt as possible.
The preparation of bacalao is almost the same everywhere it is consumed in Mexico, probably because of its strong ties to tradition, like the preparation of roast turkey in the U.S. and Canada. But one twist that has shown up in Mexico City markets is tortas de bacalao — traditionally prepared bacalao spooned into a crusty roll called a bolillo and eaten as seasonal street food. But then there is a joke that people from Mexico City will eat anything put in a bolillo.
In my opinion, both dishes are something of an acquired taste. Reconstituted cod and shrimp often have a texture that can turn people off. However, using fresh versions does not work for either recipe as the flesh would simply dissolve. Dark greens like romeritos can have a strong flavor as well. But for those who grow up with these dishes, there is no substitute.
Leigh Thelmadatter arrived in Mexico 17 years ago and fell in love with the land and the culture. She publishes a blog called Creative Hands of Mexicoand her first book, Mexican Cartonería: Paper, Paste and Fiesta, was published last year. Her culture blog appears weekly on Mexico News Daily.
Security forces escort a shipment of Covid-19 vaccine traveling from Nuevo León to Coahuila.
Another 646 hospital beds in Mexico City have been occupied by Covid-19 patients since the city went red on the coronavirus risk map December 18.
As of Sunday, the situation remained critical in the capital and in México state, where occupancy of beds allocated to coronavirus patients was 86% and 78% respectively.
The two entities lead the country with the highest number of active coronavirus cases. Other states that are high on the list are Guanajuato, Nuevo León, Jalisco, Tabasco, Coahuila, Querétaro, Puebla and Hidalgo.
Together their case numbers represent 83% of the total active cases in Mexico.
As of Sunday night, accumulated cases across the country totalled 1.38 million, while the death toll was 122,426.
Coronavirus cases and deaths in Mexico as reported by day. milenio
Meanwhile, vaccination was to resume on Monday following Saturday’s arrival of another 42,900 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, three days ahead of schedule.
One shipment arrived in Monterrey, Nuevo León, destined for Coahuila, and another in Mexico City. A first shipment of 3,000 doses arrived in the capital last Wednesday.
Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers are the first to receive the vaccinations.
Brew masters Francisco “Paco” Aureliano, left, and Michael Boudey try out a new recipe.
I live in a rustic community called Pinar de la Venta, located at the edge of the huge Primavera Forest next to the city of Guadalajara. For years my friends and neighbors have enjoyed a series of events called Jazz in the Woods: good music, good company, good food and drink, all organized by a Frenchman named Michael Boudey.
When I recently came upon an ad for a new enterprise called Beer in the Woods, I immediately suspected Boudey must be behind it and gave him a call.
“Hello, vieille branche,” what is Beer in the Woods?”
“Mon cher ami, If you want to find out what we are, come and visit our bodega in the woods, it’s just down the hill from where you live,” replied Boudey.
Well, I always thought a bodega was a warehouse, but this was something else: a cheery place with a bar and a huge screen showing video clips of local jazz bands.
Michael Boudey conducts a beer-experience workshop.
“Welcome to Beer in the Woods,” said Boudey and his partner, Francisco “Paco” Aureliano.
“We make beer here,” they told me, “but we are not a commercial brewery. Every 15 or 20 days we create a new brew and we never repeat ourselves. So we have made 70 different beers since the beginning of this year. Because we are a lab, not a commercial brewery, we never make the same beer twice. A commercial brewer is focused on volume, but we focus on creating a recipe, which means, of course, that we keep very detailed records of every new brew we create.”
So I finally understood that my friends design craft beers for restaurants, bars and hotels, tailored to their menus and to their clients.
“The owner of that restaurant or bar attends one of our workshops,” explained Boudey. “He learns by doing. He literally sweats and pees the beer that he thinks is perfect for his customers, the one that he chooses: his beer. We accompany him in every step of this process. There’s a story behind that beer he chooses: we design it, but he participates every step of the way. That beer tells his story; it expresses his gusto.”
“Just what sort of things do people learn when they attend one of your workshops?” I asked.
“Well, as you know, beer contains four ingredients: water, barley, yeast and hops. So let’s take a little look at its principal ingredient which, to be precise is called malted barley. Let me show you what that looks like.”
Club members receive six bottles of very different style beers.
Boudey then produced lots of bottles filled with barley grains of a wide range of colors from very pale, through crystal and amber to chocolate and black, encouraging me to taste their contents. I was amazed at how many different flavors my tongue was discovering. Malting, I learned, means immersing barley in water so it sprouts, but then quickly drying the barley to stop the process just after the sprouting begins.
“When barley is allowed to germinate,” said Boudey, “it turns into a super food, just like alfalfa sprouts do. As sprouts they contain all the amino acids, vitamins, minerals, and very important enzymes. In the malting process, all those benefits are preserved. Since barley responds best to malting it’s typically used in all beer making. Wheat beer, for example, contains 50% barley. Different ways of processing and toasting barley result in different flavors which may remind you of caramel or chocolate. It’s not that the beer contains these ingredients, but that it was made with barley that has been malted and toasted in a special way.”
Michael Boudey and Paco Aureliano met 22 years ago at Tec de Monterrey University in Guadalajara where they were first introduced to beer making by a fellow teacher.”We started out making it in a garrafon and had a lot of fun, but never did we suspect we’d end up where we are now.”
Years later they came up with the idea of Jazz in the Woods. “During those sessions,” Boudey told me, “we found that there was nothing more enjoyable than trying out new beers, new wines and new music with our friends. So we got together with some of those friends, bought some really fine quality beer-making equipment and started a sort of club where we could make beer and drink it while listening to great music and sharing everything together.
“This we were doing for five years, during which time Paco took courses, read books and watched hundreds of tutorials on YouTube, spoiling great quantities of beer along the way, but learning all the time. Finally he served an apprenticeship in Guadalajara.”
Here Paco Aureliano chimed in: “At the beginning of 2020, Michael and I decided it was time to move from theory to practice, not just taking notes while watching other people make beer, but actually getting our hands dirty, getting scalded from boiling water, plunging right in, and Michael said, ‘Yes, let’s do it!’”
Mexican made French cheeses for beer pairings.
“Next,” Aureliano went on, “we started holding workshops in which people would not just watch beer being made, but would actually make it themselves, a direct experience. So two people might participate and we would make three beers. It was an experience in every stage of the process; it was an exercise of exploring the mysteries of brewing. It was learning, it was tasting, it was discovery and especially: it was fun.”
I wondered, of course, just what these two entrepreneurs were doing with all that beer they were producing.
“That was no problem at all,” they told me. “We started a beer tasting club! Every two weeks we send six big bottles of beer or mead to each member of the club and these are always quite different styles of brew, perhaps India pale ale or wheat beer or stout. This is so the member and his or her friends and neighbors can always learn something new about what they have not experienced before. And it’s all about discovery.
“For example, two days ago a friend said: ‘You gave me a stout last time and I had never tried one before, so we did some experimenting at home. My wife made some brownies and oh, wow, what a great combination it turned out to be!’ So we are always trying to entice people out of whatever ‘taste rut,’ so to speak, that they have fallen into.”
The brew masters told me there are around 30 people in their club right now. The first 20 who ask for the beer-tasting kit receive their bottles on Monday and the following Saturday night participate in a Zoom session for the tasting (cata in Spanish). “We suggest foods that can accompany the beers, for example fruits, cookies, cheeses, meats, chocolates and actually any kind of food people want to experiment with.”
If you would like to join the club or participate in a craft beer workshop, just go to the Beer in the Woods website or visit their Facebook or Instagram pages.
Ivel Orozco and Alejandro Pineda of Jalisco’s Mieloro supply fine honey for Beer in the Woods’ new line of mead.
Sprouted barley grains.
The writer has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area and co-author of Outdoors in Western Mexico. More of his writing can be found on his website.
Mary Ann Humfreville didn't appear for a breakfast meeting on December 17.
Authorities in Baja California have been unable to determine what happened to a Bahía de los Ángeles woman who has been missing since December 17.
There has been no contact with Mary Ann Humfreville, 74, since she spoke by phone with her son on December 16.
On the following day she didn’t turn up for a breakfast meeting. Friends later found her home empty apart from a dog and a cat inside the house. Also missing was her red 1998 Ford F-150 pickup bearing California plates.
Humfreville was a full-time resident of Bahía de los Ángeles, a town in the municipality of San Quintín.
Anyone with information about her whereabouts is asked to call 911.
Humfreville is 5 feet, 4 inches tall, has short, gray hair and does not speak Spanish.
Concepción Fernández and daughter-in-law Guadalupe prepare chiles navideños.
Chile navideño, unlike many traditional Mexican dishes, doesn’t appear to have an origin story. There’s no legend about a nun whipping up the first batch of mole while under the spell of a celestial inspiration, or a story about how it may have been invented, like chile en nogada, to celebrate Mexican independence.
But that doesn’t seem to bother anyone. The dish, which is a staple in Puebla during the Christmas season, is enjoyed despite its lack of a clear, or colorful, backstory.
Luís Heric Ponce Rivera makes the stuffed chiles for his family every December. “I learned from my mother, who learned from her mother,” he said. “It is a family recipe. It goes back generations.” Making the chiles, while not arduous, is definitely time-consuming.
Dried chipotles, which are a type of jalapeño, are used to make the dish. “Do not use fresh,” said Ponce. “Always start with dry [chiles]. “One can use fresh jalapeños or poblanos for stuffing but for chile navideño, always start with dry. It has a different flavor.”
He first soaks the chiles in salted water for about half an hour, then slices them and removes the seeds and veins. “This is very important,” Ponce explained, “or the chiles will be too spicy.” After another two or three hours in salt water, he boils “some” piloncillo and adds that to the chiles, along with a teaspoon each of sugar, salt, thyme, oregano and some bay leaf. The chiles are then left to soak overnight.
Ponce fries his chiles, an annual tradition.
“This is to get the flavor of the herbs and piloncillo,” he continued. “This gives the chile a sweet flavor.” Like many family recipes, getting exact measurements from people is a bit of a challenge, but the above measurements should be within the ballpark.
Every pueblo and, really, every family has its own recipe for traditional dishes and chile navideño is no exception. I’d visited Concepción Fernández in San Pedro Yancuiltlapan a couple of months back to write about her chiles en nogada and decided a return trip was necessary for this article. I was curious to see what differences there were between the two recipes. Besides, her chiles en nogada were excellent, warranting a return trip for a chance to sample another dish. It was worth the trip.
As expected, there were some differences between the two recipes; most were minor but there was one unexpected difference.
Like Ponce, Fernández soaks her dried chiles in salted water, but only for a short time and until they’re soft, and doesn’t add any other spices. And while Ponce uses a stove, Fernández insists on using clay pots and charcoal in all her cooking. “The clay and charcoal give the chiles their flavor,” she said.
Hers is also a family recipe. “I learned from my niece,” she said. “My parents did not have the money to buy the chiles. They are very, very expensive.” Large, dried chipotle navideño currently cost 360 pesos/kilo (about US $8/lb) while smaller ones run about 120 pesos/kilo ($2.70/lb).
After removing the veins and seeds, both she and Ponce stuff the chiles with panela or queso fresco, which are mild cheeses. Then they both coat the chiles with flour, dip them in beaten eggs and fry them to a crispy, golden brown. So the two recipes are very similar.
Fernández cooks her dish in a clay pot over charcoal, which she says gives the chiles their flavor.
But there was one surprising difference: Fernández stuffs a few of hers with chapulines. Roasted grasshoppers. “That is only found in this pueblo,” said Guadalupe, her helper and daughter-in-law. “It is something original.”
Ponce serves his chile navideño as a torta — a sandwich — while Fernández serves hers with sliced bread on the side. The bread is torn into smaller pieces and used to pick up bits of the chile. Ayocote, a large bean, is a typical side dish. Serving the chiles topped with a tasty salsa roja or verde also works well.
Chile navideño has a deliciously smoky flavor. Ponce’s version is a little milder and sweeter than Fernández’s but both are wonderful. I begged off tasting the chiles she’d stuffed with chapulines, so I can’t say what they tasted like but her husband said they were particularly tasty.
“In homes, chiles navideños are only made during December,” said Ponce, “but they are available all year in stores. We always have them on Christmas and New Year’s Day.” Fernández serves them on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day and said that in San Pedro Yancuiltlapan they’re available until February 14.
But there are some people who simply can’t wait for the traditional season. “Sometimes for a birthday, someone will say, ‘I would like chiles navideños and fish.’ We use a fish called bandera, which is cheap, because here, there is not much money.”
Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
Coronavirus point man Hugo López-Gatell and Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum witness the vaccination of 59-year-old nurse María Irene Ramírez. She was the first of nearly 3,000 people who received the Covid vaccine on Thursday.
Guanajuato is the latest state to turn red on the coronavirus stoplight map as the pandemic continues to worsen, primarily in 10 states.
Health Minister Daniel Díaz Martínez said measures reflecting the maximum risk level would take effect Friday, three days ahead of what had been anticipated.
The decision was triggered by increased hospitalizations and a rise in the mortality rate and the number of positive Covid-19 tests.
Restrictions will include the closure of bars and cantinas, a reduction from 50% to 30% in allowed capacity at places of business and to 20% in parks and other public places.
There are now five states — Mexico City, México state, Baja California, Morelos and Guanajuato — designated as maximum risk for the coronavirus and five more face the likelihood of joining them, according to the federal Ministry of Health.
Senior officials welcome the arrival of the Covid vaccine at the Mexico City airport.
They are Sonora, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Aguascalientes and Hidalgo.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Thursday that the mortality rate had increased by 2% and that hospitalizations were up to 18,292, 3% more than the previous maximum number, recorded in July.
“The epidemic is accelerating and for that reason it is very important not to lose sight of the need to take preventive measures, regardless of the exhilaration produced by the arrival of the vaccine,” López-Gatell said.
Senior government officials gathered Wednesday at the Mexico City airport to welcome the arrival of the first 3,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
It was considerably less than the 250,000 doses that were initially scheduled to arrive on Monday. But Health Minister Jorge Alcocer explained that the small shipment was intended to “calibrate” the supply chain and ensure that the necessary systems were in place for the supply, distribution and application of the vaccine, which must be maintained at a temperature of -70 C while in transit.
The smaller than expected shipment didn’t stop the government from creating what many described as a political event on the runway for the benefit of reporters.
López-Gatell displays one of the 3,000 doses.
Five senior cabinet ministers, some deputy ministers and other officials greeted the vaccine’s arrival but ignored the safe distance measures the government has been promoting as essential to curbing the spreading of the virus.
Not unexpectedly, there were many critics but López-Gatell dismissed them after the event, suggesting their comments reflected limited comprehension.
“I don’t think we should worry if someone ridicules a public health strategy in a country … that is living with a pandemic. [It shows] their degree of comprehension or ability to understand a phenomenon such as this and be able to contribute.”
Meanwhile, nearly 3,000 people were vaccinated Thursday in Mexico City.
Vaccinations will resume next week following the forecast arrival of another 50,000 doses on Tuesday.
There were 12,485 new coronavirus cases registered on Thursday, bringing the accumulated total to 1,362,564. The total number of deaths is now 121,172 after another 861 fatalities were recorded yesterday.
A common sight just after Mexico's topes is a driver fixing his car's undercarriage.
I want to meet the guy who came up with the idea for topes.
For those fortunate few who don’t know what topes are, they’re basically wider and higher speed bumps than you’re probably used to that are randomly placed on many Mexican roads for no apparent reason.
Well, that’s not fair. There are apparent reasons. Mexicans tend to drive like maniacs. The idea behind topes, I guess, is to get Mexicans to at least slow down. Getting them to drive safely is pretty much impossible.
The thing about topes is, they really don’t get drivers to slow down. What they get them to do is burn out their brakes and clutches.
This is the way it works: people drive at their normal reckless speed until they see a tope. Then they slam on the brakes, slowly climb over the tope and speed away.
There are some places where officials apparently have some kind of heart because they’ve put up warning signs that you’re approaching a tope or have painted the tope with white or yellow stripes to alert you. To be honest, the signs don’t give you a heck of a lot of warning, and the paint on virtually every tope I’ve ever seen has faded to worthlessness. That means that just after many topes you’ll often see cars pulled over with someone underneath trying to patch the undercarriage back together.
But if individual topes are bizarre, “tope zones” take it to a whole other level.
As their name suggests, tope zones are places that have several topes in a short stretch, often just a few feet apart. Driving through one of these zones is kind of like being on a demented amusement park ride.
As usual, a driver will approach a tope at top speed, slam on the brakes and then slowly drive over it. He will then accelerate to make it as quickly as possible to the next tope, where he’ll slam on his brakes again. This pattern is repeated until he’s finally out of the zone, at which time the driver may be incapacitated with a severe case of whiplash.
I guess topes are a noble first attempt to make the roads safer, but someone has to accept that they’re simply not working. I mean, we’re dealing with a nation of people who are in such a rush that they think nothing of passing a truck while going uphill on a blind curve on a two-lane mountain road — where there are no guardrails between you and the valley bottom several hundred feet below. This is not an exaggeration: I’ve been in vehicles doing exactly that.
So, does anyone really think that a lousy bit of raised asphalt slapped into the middle of the road will do all that much to change things?
I have my doubts.
Joseph Sorrentino is a regular contributor to Mexico News Daily.
A mobile hospital in Chihuahua is being shipped to Mexico City to help handle the increased case load.
The coronavirus outbreak in Mexico City will overwhelm the capital’s health system in January, according to academics in Mexico and the United States who collaborated on a study.
Academics from Mexico City’s Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) and Stanford University predict that by the middle of next month demand for hospital beds for coronavirus patients in the capital’s metropolitan area will be 50% higher than the current capacity of approximately 10,000 beds.
Their prediction assumes that there will be more social distancing over the vacation period than there has been recently.
“Under all scenarios and policies, current hospital capacity appears insufficient,” the academics wrote. In a worst case scenario, more than 35,000 coronavirus patients could require a hospital bed at the same time in January, they said.
“Officials should prioritize rapid hospital capacity expansion.”
A Covid patient is admitted to a Mexico City hospital.
The news agency Bloomberg said the “study is the clearest evidence yet that Mexico’s virus response is insufficient to deal with what appears to be a second, more virulent outbreak.”
Mexico City has been the country’s coronavirus epicenter since the start of the pandemic, and is now nearing 300,000 confirmed cases. More than 20,000 people have lost their lives to the infectious disease in the capital and just under 5,400 coronavirus patients are currently in hospitals across the city.
More than three-quarters – 77% – of hospital beds set aside for coronavirus patients are currently in use, according to the city government.
The CIDE and Stanford academics said the only way to avoid the collapse of the health system is to maintain very strict coronavirus restrictions well into 2021.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum last week ordered a three-week suspension of nonessential activities after the coronavirus risk level in the capital was raised to red light “maximum” but it remains to be seen whether it will have the desired effect on reducing case numbers and hospitalizations.
Senior government officials greeted the arrival of Covid vaccine today in Mexico City.
Having ruled out any possibility of enforcing strict lockdowns, the government appears to be hoping that a rapid vaccination campaign will help control the virus. But the reality is that inoculating enough people to end the pandemic will take many months at the very least – if things go smoothly. Some doctors fear the government will bungle the vaccination process based on its lackluster pandemic response.
Still, the arrival of the first batch of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines on Wednesday provides the country with some much needed hope.
Mexico has signed an agreement to purchase 34.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and the first 3,000 of that number arrived in Mexico City Wednesday morning via DHL from Belgium.
Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, Health Minister Jorge Alcoer and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, who is leading the government’s pandemic response, were among the officials who met the plane on the tarmac.
Mexico is the first country in Latin America to receive a Covid-19 vaccine and among the first 10 in the world, Ebrard said. He said that vaccines will be made available free of charge to all Mexican citizens and the vaccination process will start soon.
“It’s true that we’re still facing a terrible pandemic, the worst we’ve lived through, but today is the start of the end of the pandemic,” Ebrard said. “Today we can clearly see that we’re going to defeat this virus that has … disrupted our lives. … We have hope and today we are very happy.”
Estimated active Covid cases by state. milenio
The government has already presented a vaccination plan that stipulates that frontline health workers and the elderly will be prioritized. The vaccinations are in the possession of the military and the first shots will be administered on Thursday, the Health Ministry said.
The arrival of the first batch of vaccines comes a day after Mexico recorded a new single-day record of confirmed coronavirus cases. The Health Ministry reported 12,511 new cases on Tuesday, increasing the accumulated tally to just under 1.34 million.
An additional 897 Covid-19 fatalities were also registered, lifting the death toll to 119,495.
According to the federal government stoplight system, there are currently three red light “maximum” risk states – Mexico City, México state and Baja California – and 24 “high” risk orange ones.
But authorities in Morelos announced Wednesday that red light red restrictions would apply in that state from Thursday on. The government warned Monday that tighter restrictions would be implemented if citizens didn’t comply with current rules and today acted on that warning.
Governor Cuauhtémoc Blanco said that all nonessential economic activities will be suspended from Christmas Eve until January 11. That means that the same shutdown that already applies in Mexico City and México state extends to the capital’s southern neighbor.
“Reducing [economic] activity and social mobility is urgent,” Blanco said. “That’s the only way we’ll be able to stop this increase of Covid-19 in our state.”
The government’s decision to enforce red light restrictions comes despite Morelos having recorded fewer than 10,000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic and having a hospital occupancy rate of only 43%.
There are currently 286 confirmed active cases in the state, according to the Morelos Health Ministry, up from 190 on December 1.
