Institute's face shield will do more than simply provide protection.
Researchers at the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) are working on a comprehensive system to monitor coronavirus patients remotely and in real time.
The system, consisting of a smart face shield and gloves, uses non-invasive sensors to monitor a patient’s bioelectric signals, including heart rate, oxygen saturation, respiratory rate, temperature, and carbon dioxide levels which will be sent to doctors for evaluation. The mask will have three sensors, and the gloves two.
“They are very small devices that monitor the patient without inconvenience. When any of the parameters go out of range, an alert is issued to the attending physician’s mobile phone; in a matter of minutes he will be able to make the pertinent decisions for their patient,” said project leader Juan Humberto Sossa Azuela, head of the Robotics and Mechatronics Laboratory of the IPN’s Center for Computer Research.
The project is focused on remote medical assessment, a pressing need in the health sector which will limit the need for in-person visits to medical clinics and health centers, thus reducing the risk of infection.
“With this mask and glove, the patient can be under strict medical surveillance, without the specialist being present, making it possible to keep the person under the required confinement, in addition to avoiding hospital saturation,” Sossa explained.
The technology would also allow patients who are not able or do not choose to leave their homes to be diagnosed remotely, which would help prevent the virus from spreading.
Sossa’s team is also working on developing a robot that can clean hospitals remotely using ultraviolet light. “It has basic autonomy functions that will allow sanitizing toilets, hallways and rooms remotely, in addition to monitoring the patient and serving as a link to the medical staff, through a sensor system and an interface for tablets,” he said.
Sossa is part of a team of Mexican scientists brought together by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to collaborate with foreign researchers in the development of a vaccine against Covid-19.
Deputy Minister López-Gatell is rarely seen wearing a face mask.
As Mexico’s official coronavirus case tally passed 400,000 on Tuesday, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell called on citizens to wear a face mask as an “auxiliary measure” to help stop the virus’s spread.
Speaking at the Health Ministry’s nightly coronavirus press briefing, the coronavirus czar said that some people have the idea that the federal government is the enemy of face masks or opposed to their use.
“Wear your face mask, wear your face mask,” he urged citizens while briefly wearing one.
The deputy minister said the use of a face mask is an “auxiliary measure” to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.
The president has only been seen wearing a face mask when flying.
Wearing one complements the frequent washing of hands, the “extremely important” practice of social distancing, the covering of one’s mouth when coughing or sneezing and staying at home when one has symptoms of the coronavirus, he said.
He added that the government is thinking about making a video that compiles the many times that health officials have advocated for their use.
“The video will be called Wear your face mask and it … will show the innumerable occasions we’ve spoken about face masks,” López-Gatell said.
The deputy minister’s boss, meanwhile, is not keen on wearing them himself. President López Obrador said last Friday there is no scientific evidence that the masks are effective and he would only use one if unable to maintain a healthy distance from others, although recent photographs of events attended by the president indicate otherwise.
Earlier in the press conference, Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía reported that Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus case tally had increased to 402,697 with 7,208 new cases registered on Tuesday. Just under 8% of the cases – 31,128 – are considered active while there are 87,538 suspected cases across Mexico.
Alomía also reported that the Covid-19 death toll had increased to 44,876 with 854 additional fatalities registered. Based on confirmed cases and deaths, Mexico’s fatality rate is 11.1 per 100 cases, well above the global rate of 3.9.
Alomía presented detailed coronavirus data for the states of Aguascalientes, San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas, which rank 27th, 18th and 31st, respectively, for total cases among Mexico’s 32 states.
He said new case numbers declined in Aguascalientes in epidemiological weeks 28 and 29 – July 5 to 18 – with a 6% drop in the latter week compared to the former.
The small Bajío region state has recorded 3,883 confirmed cases, of which 11% are estimated to be active, and 247 Covid-19 deaths. Aguascalientes city has recorded 2,917 confirmed cases, or 75% of all cases detected in the state.
However, new cases numbers have stabilized in the state capital in recent weeks.
Hospital occupancy for general care beds and critical care beds is 25% and 36%, respectively.
The daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths. Deaths are numbers reported and not necessarily those that occurred each day. milenio
In San Luis Potosí, new infections increased significantly in epidemiological weeks 27, 28 and 29, a period which ran from June 28 to July 18. Estimated case numbers spiked 33% between weeks 28 and 29, according to Health Ministry data.
San Luis Potosí has recorded 8,294 confirmed cases, of which 25% are estimated to be active, and 420 Covid-19 deaths.
“A quarter of the entire epidemic that has occurred until now in San Luis Potosí is an active epidemic,” Alomía said, adding that the current situation is the result of the “acceleration” in new infections seen in recent weeks.
New case numbers have increased considerably in July in the municipalities of Ciudad Valles, Matehuala and San Luis Potosí, the state capital.
Hospital occupancy for general care beds and critical care beds in the state is 40% and 41%, respectively.
In Zacatecas, case numbers remained very low until epidemiological week 23 – May 31 to June 6 – when they began to rise steadily. New infections increased even more quickly in weeks 27, 28 and 29, with a 38% spike recorded between the latter two.
The northern state has recorded 2,422 confirmed cases – the second lowest state tally after Colima – of which 25% are estimated to be active. Zacatecas’ official Covid-19 death toll is 218, the third lowest in the country after Baja California Sur and Colima.
The municipalities of Zacatecas and Guadalupe have recorded particularly sharp increases in case numbers in recent weeks, while new infections in Fresnillo also rose considerably for several weeks before declining slightly in epidemiological week 29.
Hospital occupancy for general care beds and critical care beds in Zacatecas is 42% and 34%, respectively.
Cartel displays its firepower in one of two recent videos.
If there were any lingering doubts about the military might of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel after its brazen attack on Mexico City’s police chief and assassination of a judge, videos widely shared on social media this month have dispelled them.
“Mr. Mencho’s people!” chanted dozens of heavily-armed, fatigues-clad men in one video — referring to the cartel’s leader, Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho” — as the camera panned down a line of armored vehicles.
In another video, a balaclava-clad leader was flanked by uniformed men with weapons hoisted, standing in front of machine guns draped with bullets and military-style vehicles.
CJNG, the acronym for the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in Mexico’s national colours, was emblazoned on their flak jackets. Shields painted on the vehicles’ doors declared them to be the elite special forces group of Mexico’s most aggressive criminal organization, led by the fugitive Oseguera, whose birthday his soldiers celebrated in the first video.
As President López Obrador struggles to contain record nationwide homicide levels and fight organized crime — including putting the military in charge of ports and customs this month, in an effort to halt shipments of chemicals used to make synthetic drugs to CJNG and other cartels — the videos struck a nerve.
Confirmed as authentic by the government, experts said they could be read as a warning — confront the CJNG at your peril — or a bid to rebuild the cartel’s mystique after the failed Mexico City attack.
Either way, the evident financial and military firepower underscored the cartel’s menace. While not unprecedented, intelligence and anti-narcotics agents were shocked by their slickness and swagger.
“I’m seeing that the CJNG like none other before has decided to take on the state in toto,” said Eduardo Guerrero, a security consultant. “They are a formidable challenge to the state.”
Under the leadership of Oseguera, the CJNG has gone from upstart to cartel powerhouse. Originally enforcers for the Sinaloa Cartel of jailed drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the group was initially known as the “Zeta Killers” after its pursuit of the brutal, now largely extinct Zetas cartel.
It has expanded aggressively into 31 of Mexico’s 32 states, Guerrero said. Operating through a network of cells within a hierarchy headed by Oseguera, it funnels a significant chunk of the drugs consumed into the U.S. over the border, particularly fentanyl and methamphetamines, according to experts and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The U.S. has placed a US $10-million bounty on Oseguera, reportedly a 54-year-old former police officer who served nearly three years in a U.S. prison in the 1990s for distributing heroin, and who founded the CJNG about a decade ago.
A billboard in Los Angeles offers a reward for El Mencho.
But he is rumoured to be suffering from kidney problems and reportedly built his own hospital. According to Guerrero, he could face a nascent challenge to his leadership from two key lieutenants: Juan Carlos González, known as “03,” who the government says founded the elite group last year, and Ricardo Ruiz Velazco, or “Double R,” its leader in the state of Michoacán.
In recent years, the cartel has proved itself to be ruthless and strategic, ambushing security forces, including shooting down a military helicopter in 2015.
Even so, the government was “surprised by the cartel’s demonstration of strength” in the videos, according to Raúl Benítez-Manaut, a professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and expert on security.
He noted that the cartel had suffered a setback when its daring attack last month on Omar García Harfuch, Mexico City’s police chief, failed despite the use of Barrett .50-calibre rifles that left his vehicle riddled with bullet holes.
The botched assassination attempt came on the heels of the DEA-led Project Python, which in March led to 600 arrests, 350 indictments and drugs and money seizures in the U.S. An allied operation, nicknamed Agave Azul, by Mexico’s financial intelligence unit in June, froze 1,939 bank accounts linked to the cartel.
Benítez-Manaut said the message in one video was that the CJNG’s only enemy was the Santa Rosa de Lima cartel in the state of Guanajuato, which focuses on fuel theft — possibly signifying an attempt by the CJNG to diversify in order to stay under the DEA’s radar.
“If you control fuel theft, the U.S. government doesn’t pursue you. For the CJNG, it’s very important to have a lucrative business that is not drugs.”
Guerrero saw the videos as a chilling marketing tool by a cartel flush with cash: sowing fear in order to extract extortion payments.
The timing — just after the president visited Guanajuato and Colima, where the CJNG is believed to control the port of Manzanillo — was also seen as significant.
“López Obrador’s visit to Guanajuato just made them signal their defiance to the government,” said one former senior military intelligence officer. “They resemble [Afghan] warlords — they control territory and authorities. This is very dangerous.”
There are also fears that López Obrador’s move to put the ports under military control could backfire if rich cartels bribe low-paid soldiers to look the other way. “The president has the misguided belief that the military is immune to corruption,” said Guerrero. “It’s a fantasy … this is a very risky bet.”
The government’s “hugs not bullets” policy and weakened civilian intelligence is also hurting the fight against organized crime, he said. “You have to have a strong mandate from the top to challenge the bad guys. It’s kind of suicidal what’s happening.”
Mexico’s state oil company Pemex suffered a near-US $2-billion net loss in a second quarter blighted by its downgrade to junk status as its former boss, Emilio Lozoya, went on trial in a high-profile corruption case.
Lozoya’s hearing — his first time before a judge since he arrived back in Mexico on July 17 after being extradited from Spain — distracted from the tough road Pemex faces to achieve leftist nationalist President López Obrador’s grand plans to make it Mexico’s growth engine.
The debt-laden company’s net loss — 44.3 million pesos — was 16% worse than the same quarter last year but an improvement on its first-quarter performance, when Pemex racked up a $23-billion loss after being hammered by low oil prices and currency fluctuations.
However, including actuarial losses relating to staff benefits, Pemex’s total second-quarter loss increased 17% to 239 billion pesos ($10.4 billion) and sales, at about 182 billion pesos, were half those of the second quarter last year.
It also slumped to a 30-billion-peso operating loss in the quarter and the ratio of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization to total revenues fell to 23% against 29% a year earlier.
“The company is bleeding cash like crazy,” said Jorge Andrés Castañeda, an energy consultant. “They had a cash shortfall of $4.15 billion in the first six months.”
The company, which has $106 billion in total debt and about $70 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, nevertheless insisted it was making progress.
“Pemex continues generating value and contributing to national development,” Alberto Velázquez, finance director, told analysts. “Little by little, Pemex is achieving solid results.”
Production, including from private sector partners, dipped to 1.69 million barrels per day, versus 1.74 billion in the first quarter, after the Easter supply cut deal with Opec-led oil-producing nations. But Pemex said upgrades to its six refineries were bearing fruit: refinery output rose to 635,000 barrels a day compared with 542,000 in the first quarter.
López Obrador has promised to reap the proceeds from Pemex to “sow” development in Latin America’s second-biggest economy. But the company is trapped in a Catch-22: it needs cash to boost output, but with GDP set to crash 10% this year because of Covid-19, the government has none to spare and has cut Pemex’s taxes already this year. The president has ruled out new debt and after Moody’s in April delivered Pemex’s second downgrade to junk, the cost could anyway be prohibitive.
Analysts say Pemex also owes billions of dollars to suppliers and has been raiding a corporate pension fund. “I think at the rate they’re depleting the pension fund, it could effectively be at zero by the end of this year,” said Rudy Sarmiento, analyst at Empra, a consultancy.
“No one is optimistic on Pemex’s finances but there’s the sense that they’ll be OK in the very near term and when they’re not OK, the government will step in,” said Aaron Gifford at asset manager T Rowe Price. He saw a new government bailout, after support last year, as “inevitable”.
But that could weigh on Mexico’s sovereign investment rating. Analysts said Lozoya’s trial was a convenient distraction. The former Pemex boss, who has accepted state protection in exchange for naming politicians who accepted bribes, appeared on Tuesday by video link in the first hearing over charges of money laundering related to Pemex’s 2013 purchase of a fertilizer plant.
On Wednesday he faces another hearing over alleged $10 billion kickbacks from disgraced Brazilian construction group Odebrecht. Lozoya, who was whisked to hospital, not prison, on arrival in Mexico, is alleged to have 16 hours of videos of bribes to politicians to buy their support for a historic 2013 energy reform that ended Pemex’s nearly eight-decades monopoly and allow private investment in the energy sector, according to local media reports. Some reportedly collected their cash in Louis Vuitton carrier bags.
López Obrador opposes the reform and wants to stamp out graft. But Carlos Ramírez at Integralia, a consultancy, noted: “It’s a very politicized case that he will use … to go against the energy reform and to try to win the midterm elections [in 2021]”.
According to court authorities, Lozoya said in his hearing on Tuesday morning: “I gave up my extradition fight to clear my legal situation and … I will demonstrate that I am not responsible or guilty of the crimes I am charged with.” He added that he had been “systematically intimidated, pressured and used,” without giving further details.
Emilio Lozoya appeared by video link in federal court Tuesday. file photo
Former Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya told a federal court Tuesday that he was innocent of all corruption charges leveled against him and that he would present evidence to prove it.
Lozoya, head of the state oil company between 2012 and 2016, today faced his first court hearing since he was extradited to Mexico by Spain 11 days ago.
He appeared before a judge via video link from a private hospital in Mexico City where he is being treated for anemia, an esophagus problem and general weakness.
Reporters have been barred from attending the hearing due to the coronavirus pandemic but judicial authorities are informing the media of proceedings via the messaging service WhatsApp.
Prosecutors with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) formally accused Lozoya of receiving a payment in excess of US $3 million from the president of Altos Hornos de México, a company from which Pemex purchased a rundown fertilizer plant in 2015 at an allegedly vastly inflated price.
The prosecutors claimed that Lozoya used part of the “illicit resources” to purchase a 38-million-peso (US $1.7 million at today’s exchange rate) home in Lomas de Bezares, an affluent Mexico City neighborhood.
They submitted an application to the court for the former Pemex CEO to stand trial on the corruption charges.
The prosecutors also informed the ex-official that the FGR is investigating his sister, Gilda Susana Lozoya, and Altos Hornos de México president Alonso Ancira, in relation to the property purchase.
In response, Lozoya told the court that he had decided not to fight his extradition to Mexico so that he could clear his name of all the charges of which he is accused.
“I will prove that I am not responsible for nor guilty of the crimes of which I am accused,” Lozoya said.
Lozoya and Altos Hornos chief Alonso Ancira.
He said that he declared the Lomas de Bezares residence – where his parents live – to the Ministry of Public Administration at the start of his tenure at Pemex, effectively asserting that he didn’t purchase it at the time the FGR claims.
Lozoya added that he will defend himself against the accusation that he received a bribe from Altos Hornos de México when the time comes for him to present evidence to the court.
He told the court that he was willing to cooperate with authorities in their investigation into corruption during the 2012-18 government of former president Enrique Peña Nieto but claimed that he has been “systematically” intimidated and pressured to do so. Lozoya said that he will denounce those who have attempted to intimidate him.
Earlier on Tuesday, President López Obrador described Lozoya’s appearance in court as a “watershed” moment in his government’s crusade against corruption.
“It’s a very important case,” he told reporters at his regular news conference, adding that it will help shed light on acts of government corruption that occurred while his predecessor was in office.
At the end of last week, the newspaper Reforma reported that Lozoya had told the FGR that Odebrecht funded the 2012 political campaign of Peña Nieto to the tune of US $4 million and gave another $6 million to his government after he took office.
According to Reforma, Lozoya told the FGR before his return to Mexico that Peña Nieto and former cabinet secretary Luis Videgaray directly led the bribery scheme.
Peña Nieto, whose government was plagued by scandals, has rejected claims that he acted corruptly while in office.
López Obrador said last week that he had no intention of pursuing the former president, although the FGR, which in theory acts independently of the government, could seek to build a case against him.
At a time when restaurants are failing worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, American fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. says it is expanding in Baja California Sur (BCS).
The burger chain known for its “happy star” logo will open a restaurant in San José del Cabo “very soon” and follow that up with a Cabo San Lucas location. The news brought hundreds of excited comments on social media from people who welcomed the news.
Grupo Afal, which recruits for the chain in Mexico, posted a notice to its Facebook page that it was looking for supervisors and leaders and invited those interested to contact them via WhatsApp.
The chain already has a restaurant in La Paz, and one in Terminal 2 of the Los Cabos International Airport, although the latter can only be accessed by international passengers.
The late Carl Karcher, who founded the chain in 1941, had a home in Los Cabos in the early 90s, complete with a pool sporting the happy star logo painted on the bottom. The franchise first ventured into Mexico in 1992 and currently has 267 restaurants here.
Los Cabos has seen an uptick in cases of the coronavirus in recent weeks and scores of restaurants have been forced to close their doors for good as hotel occupancy rates hover around 20%. The state has seen US $1 billion in losses due to the lockdown thus far.
Despite this being a precarious time to open a new restaurant, fans of the cheeseburgers, shakes and fries that have made the chain famous seem to be quite committed, and many are happy they will no longer have to drive the two hours north to La Paz to get their Thickburger fix.
Yaquis block the highway last week between Ciudad Obregón and Guaymas.
Indigenous Yaqui people in Sonora lifted a 12-day rail blockade on Sunday after reaching an agreement with the federal government but are still blocking traffic on a highway that runs to the Mexico-United States border.
A group of Yaquis blocked train tracks in Vícam, a town in the municipality of Guaymas, to demand that the government compensate them for ceding land for the construction of a range of infrastructure projects.
They agreed to lift the blockade after meeting with representatives of the federal Interior Ministry, the National Institute of Indigenous Peoples, the Ministry of Communications and Transportation and the National Housing Commission.
But despite reaching an agreement with federal authorities, Yaqui protesters on Monday reinstalled a blockade on Highway 15, which runs through several states to the northern border at Nogales, Sonora.
Juan Luis Matuz Valenzuela, an indigenous leader in Loma de Guamúchil, the town where the highway blockade was set up, told reporters the blockade will remain in place until the Yaquis have the opportunity to enter into dialogue with representatives of Telmex, a telecommunications company owned by billionaire businessman Carlos Slim, and Pemex, the state-owned oil company.
The Yaquis say they haven’t been adequately compensated for allowing those companies to build infrastructure on their land.
Matuz said that the federal government had agreed to fulfill its commitments to carry out social development programs and projects in Yaqui towns in Sonora and for that reason the rail blockade was lifted. However, the Yaquis are seeking additional compensation from Telmex and Pemex.
“We freed the train tracks [but] we’ll be here on the highway until we can hold a meeting with … Telmex and Pemex,” Matuz said.
A coronavirus burial. The official numbers are well below the real ones.
More evidence has emerged about the heavy toll the coronavirus pandemic has taken on Mexico’s capital.
A study found that deaths among Mexico City residents between April 19 and June 30 were 161% above their normal level.
Completed by researchers at the National Institute of Medical Science and Nutrition and the National Institute of Respiratory Diseases, the study found that excess deaths totaled 17,826 in the period.
The researchers found that deaths increased most among people aged 45-59 followed by those in the 60-75 and 30-44 age brackets. Deaths of men spiked 217% while fatalities among women increased 112%, the study said.
Via an analysis of death certificates, the researchers found that deaths among Mexico City residents began to increase above normal levels on April 19, while the highest number of fatalities – 570 – occurred on May 20.
The study found that there was a total of 28,914 deaths of Mexico City residents between April 19 and June 30, an average of 396 per day, whereas in the same period in recent years there were 152 deaths per day.
However, just 4,994 confirmed Covid-19 deaths occurred between mid April and the end of June, according to federal data.
Even though Mexico City had the largest coronavirus outbreak in that period, the researchers found that Covid-19 was only the fourth most common cause of death between April and June. The infectious disease ranked behind arterial hypertension, diabetes and pneumonia.
But the study said that Covid-19 fatalities have likely been undercounted in Mexico City because the official death toll only includes deceased patients who tested positive for the infectious disease.
Mexico City’s official Covid-19 death toll is currently 8,731, less than half the number of excess deaths that occurred in the 11-week period between mid April and the end of June.
Raucous cheers, whistles and shouts of “Yes he could!” by medical personnel greeted a centenarian as he was discharged from a government hospital in Veracruz after recovering from the coronavirus.
As Ignacio Cano was being wheeled out of the hospital on a stretcher before being taken home by ambulance Sunday, his daughter, Maribel, thanked a doctor for his help in saving her 100-year-old father’s life.
“Thank you, doctor, I am very happy, thank you for the attention you gave my dad, very grateful,” she said in a video posted to social media.
“Don Nacho” Cano is the oldest patient at the hospital to recover from the virus, and the staff was understandably enthusiastic to see him being discharged.
In the state of Veracruz, 19,535 cases of the coronavirus have been reported, with 2,525 deaths.
Dr. Grajales, arrested in Chiapas after a patient died from the coronavirus.
The leaders of several medical associations have written to President López Obrador to complain that they are being blamed by authorities for deficiencies in Mexico’s health system.
The letter signed by more than 10 medical association presidents was sent after a doctor in Chiapas was arrested in connection with the death of a coronavirus patient.
The association presidents said the hospital where the detained emergency doctor worked, a facility in Tuxtla Gutiérrez run by the Chiapas government, didn’t have the medicine required to treat the deceased patient.
The arrest of Gerardo Vicente Grajales Yuca by state authorities was “violent, abusive and illegal,” the letter said, rejecting the claim by the Chiapas Attorney General’s Office that the doctor was guilty of abuse of authority.
“We’re not opposed to incorrect professional conduct [by doctors] being investigated and sanctioned … but we don’t agree with being used to shift responsibility … for a chronically deficient health system,” the medical leaders said.
They said the detained doctor had asked the deceased patient’s family to purchase a medication that wasn’t readily available in the hospital. Asking the family to purchase the medicine did not make the doctor guilty of any crime, the medical association presidents said.
Acting on a complaint by the deceased man’s daughter, Chiapas authorities nevertheless took the doctor into custody, announcing that his arrest occurred “within the framework” of the fight against corruption.
A protest to demand Grajales’s release is planned to take place in front of the National Palace in Mexico City this Friday.
In their letter to López Obrador, the medical association presidents reminded the president that they have already denounced – on numerous occasions – the lack of medications and supplies with which to treat coronavirus patients.
They said it was “paradoxical” that doctors are being blamed by authorities and the general public for shortcomings in the health system while they are fighting to save patients’ lives. They demanded a halt to the persecution and harassment against medical personnel on the front line in the battle against Covid-19.
Guerrero hospital director Mélida Honorato was murdered last Friday.
Some medical personnel have been attacked with bleach in apparent attempts to “disinfect” them and thus stop the spread of the virus.
Now, the head of a health workers’ union in Guerrero says the murder of a hospital director in that state could also be part of the baffling backlash against medical personnel working with Covid-19 patients.
Beatriz Vélez Núñez, general secretary of section 36 of the National Health Workers Union, said the murder of Mélida Honorato Gabriel, who was the director of a hospital in the Montaña region municipality of Huamuxtitlán, could have been committed by disgruntled relatives of a deceased coronavirus patient.
She said that family members have threatened violence against health workers in Guerrero hospitals if they don’t save the lives of their sick loved ones.
Vélez called on López Obrador and Guerrero Governor Héctor Astudillo Flores to modify their discourse about doctors’ obligations when treating coronavirus patients.
“They shouldn’t always say that we have to look after them with all we’ve got because we don’t always have the medicine, material and equipment [we need],” she said. “The case of the doctor [Honorato] occurred precisely because of that situation.”
The hospital director was shot dead last Friday by two men who intercepted her vehicle while she was traveling on the Tlapa-Puebla federal highway in Guerrero.
Her colleagues at the Huamuxtitlán hospital stopped work on Saturday to demand justice and the provision of security for health workers.
Doctors, nurses and administrative staff said in a statement that they would only attend to urgent cases until authorities provided them with a safety guarantee.
