Coronavirus fears initially bar cruise ship from stopping at Cozumel

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February 27, 2020

A cruise ship carrying a person with flu-like symptoms has been allowed to dock at Cozumel, Quintana Roo, after being denied access to the port on Wednesday.

The crew member is said to have a case of influenza A virus contracted in the Philippines, but fears of the coronavirus known as Covid-19 caused ports in Jamaica and the Cayman Islands to deny the ship permission to dock.

The Meraviglia arrived off the coast of Cozumel around 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday and was denied permission to dock after a series of back-and-forth decisions by Mexican authorities.

Quintana Roo Governor Carlos Joaquín González announced the decision in a tweet just before 11:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

“If there is a health risk, there will be no authorization for disembarkation,” he tweeted.

The ship therefore spent the night anchored three kilometers offshore, but was finally allowed to dock around 7:00 a.m. on Thursday. Mexican health authorities boarded the ship to examine the patient.

Despite statements from Quintana Roo Health Minister Alejandra Aguirre Crespo that the case is not one of Covid-19, a group of about 10 people gathered at the wharf in Cozumel on Wednesday to demand that the ship not be allowed to dock out of fear of health risks.

The operator of the Meraviglia, MSC Cruises, expressed its disagreement with the decisions not to allow the ship to moor, claiming that they were made out of fear rather than empirical evidence.

“The crew member was diagnosed with the seasonal flu and is in stable condition. … As a precaution, he was isolated from other crew members and passengers from the moment he showed symptoms and will continue as such until he recovers completely. No other cases of influenza A have been reported aboard the MSC Meraviglia,” it said in a statement.

The cruise liner is carrying 4,500 passengers and 1,500 crew members. None have been allowed to disembark. Health experts are expected to report the results of their examinations at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and decide whether to allow those aboard to come ashore.

President López Obrador told his Thursday morning press conference that the country’s ports would not be closed out of fear of the coronavirus, calling the move inhumane.

“If there is a case [of coronavirus], we’ll take care of it. We have information that the possibility does not exist. We cannot act in an inhumane way. There are protocols to carry out, but it’s not a case of ‘You can’t dock here.’ We cannot act like that,” he said.

He called the decision to treat the sick crew member “a matter of humanitarianism,” adding that “the regrettable truth is that there are attitudes of rejection.”

Sources: El Heraldo de México (sp), Noticaribe (sp), El Financiero (sp)

Hospitals geared up in case of coronavirus outbreak, say health authorities

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Cody Copeland

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February 27, 2020

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Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell. — Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell: protocol is ready.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell announced Wednesday that the country has an emergency response protocol ready in the event that the coronavirus known as Covid-19 arrives in Mexico.

The health system has prepared 2,738 intensive care hospital beds and 6,175 medical ventilators to deal with a possible outbreak of the virus.

Hospitals operated by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) will contribute 1,867 beds and 2,565 ventilators, while State Workers’ Social Security Institute (ISSSTE) hospitals will provide 551 beds and 3,064 ventilators.

The rest of the beds and breathing machines will be provided by Pemex hospitals and federal health institutes.

López-Gatell said that as many as 85% of potential cases of Covid-19 in Mexico will present only light symptoms that will be treatable at home with medical advice given over the telephone.

“A small percentage, 15%, could have serious symptoms … [such as] inflammation in the lungs, pneumonia … and an even smaller percentage — 3% — are going to require advanced attention in intensive care, and in Mexico we have over 157 specialized hospitals and over 2,500 second-class hospitals that have these types of respiratory support capabilities,” he said.

He said that the ability to treat non-severe cases at home and in rural areas will “avoid intra-hospital propagation [of the virus] and saturation of the facilities. They won’t require large-scale or major investments for their care. It would be symptomatic treatment to provide relief.”

His prognosis is that the virus will behave more or less like the seasonal flu that usually propagates in Mexico between October and March.

“It most likely won’t behave like a catastrophic disease,” he said.

Nevertheless, he emphasized that medical personnel are being trained to treat critical patients, protect themselves and reduce the probability of deaths.

The director of the Health Ministry’s epidemiology department, José Luis Alomía, said that the country’s health services have a strategic reserve of 145,000 disposable and biodegradable hospital gowns, 111,000 surgical face masks, 32,599 propene face masks and 42,729 high-tech respirators to protect health workers.

Source: Milenio (sp)

As Hidalgo lake dries up, farmers and fishermen lose vital water source

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MND Staff

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February 27, 2020

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This was a 580-hectare lake. — This was a 581-hectare lake.

A lake in Hidalgo that is a key source of water for agriculture could dry up completely within a month, the National Water Commission (Conagua) has warned.

Located in the municipalities of Metztitlán and Eloxochitlán, the Laguna de Metztitlán has already lost 95% of its water due to drought and seepage.

Gregorio Badillo, head of ecology at the Metztitlán council, told the newspaper El Universal that a lack of rain last year and in the first two months of 2020 has had a severe impact on the lake.

The extremity of the situation came into sharp focus last week when local residents discovered thousands of dead fish. Badillo explained that 120 members of four cooperatives that farm fish in the lake had lost all of their stock — and with it their livelihoods.

The severe lack of water is also of serious concern to farmers in the region who source water from the lake for irrigation of crops such as beans and corn.

Marco Antonio Moreno Gaytán, an environmental activist and member of the Hidalgo Ecology Society, said that the situation is caused by drought linked to climate change. Rivers that feed into the Laguna de Metztitlán have also dried up, he said.

“This is painful. … It’s not just fish that are being lost but a lot of biodiversity. … We thought that it [the lake] was never going to disappear but this is now a severe blow for all the ecosystems and agricultural activity,” Moreno said.

While shimmering water formerly extended across the lake’s 581 hectares, after prolonged drought farm animals can now graze and motorbikes can ride over the vast majority of the desiccated lakebed.

During a visit to the lake Monday, Conagua officials predicted that the Laguna de Metztitlán will lose its remaining water in a month, if not before.

The officials said that while 200 to 300 liters of water continue to flow into the lake per second, greater quantities of water are being lost due to percolation, or seepage. Water now covers no more than 30 hectares, or 5%, of the lakebed, they said.

Hidalgo Agriculture Secretary Carlos Muñiz Rodríguez acknowledged that the situation is “very critical” but explained that authorities remain hopeful that the lake will recover. However, he pointed out that the forecast for this year is not promising.

“We had the worst drought last year, not just in Hidalgo but across the entire country; only three states didn’t have the problem and according to Conagua, the drought will extend this year,” Muñiz said.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Michoacán to grant 10,000th visa in program to reunite families in US

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MND Staff

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February 27, 2020

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A busload of seniors from Michoacán en route to visit their families in 2018 as part of the Messenger Pigeons program.

The Michoacán government is on the verge of distributing travel visa No. 10,000 in a 3-year-old program that reunites residents of that state with their family members in the United States.

Governor Silvano Aureoles told a press conference this week that the Palomas Mensajeras (Messenger Pigeons) program – a collaboration between Michoacán authorities and the U.S. Department of State – has benefited people in 95 of the state’s municipalities and that the aim is to reach residents of all 113 municipalities.

Under the program, the government covers visa and travel expenses so that mainly older adults can visit the United States to see their children, who migrated to the U.S. as long as 30 years ago but remain undocumented there. In some cases, the beneficiaries of the scheme have the opportunity to meet their grandchildren face-to-face for the first time ever.

“We are close to reaching visa number 10,000. It’s so important that the link with family members not be broken,” Aureoles said.

The governor said that 70% of the beneficiaries of the Palomas Mensajeras scheme have been women and that 30% of the total have come from indigenous communities.

“We’re talking about one of the most humanistic programs of the state government because it unites families, it allows them to meet again,” Aureoles said.

Imelda Gil, a beneficiary of the program in 2019, told the broadcaster CGTN that being able to travel to the United States to see her daughter who left Michoacán 20 years ago was “a dream come true.”

Reunited with her mother in the U.S., Isabel Gil said that “it’s been very hard being apart.”

“I’ve had three kids here and I don’t have my mother with me so it’s been very hard. Our family events and traditional celebrations all take place away from my homeland. … I was longing to see my mother. I’d like many other people to experience this. Few people get the opportunity to see their parents again, it’s wonderful,” she said.

Back in Michoacán, Aureoles pointed out that migration to the United States has been occurring for some 150 years.

“It’s not a recent thing,” he said, adding that numbers spiked during World War II when the United States invited Mexicans to work there because its workforce was depleted as a result of men traveling abroad to fight.

There are currently some 4.6 million Michoacán natives living in the United States, and in 2019 they sent almost US $3.6 billion home in remittances.

Aureoles said that the money supports both families and communities, explaining that it is invested in businesses and used to complete small infrastructure projects, such as roadwork and repairs to schools and churches.

Source: Mi Morelia (sp), Quadratín (sp)

Pemex posts loss of US $18 billion in 2019, nearly double that of prior year

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Cody Copeland

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February 27, 2020

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The state oil company Pemex reported a loss of nearly US $18 billion in 2019, almost twice as much as the loss of $9.2 billion in 2018.

The company reported that its domestic revenues fell 17.5%, while its export revenues fell 15.3%. It cited both the drop in per-barrel price — from $62.29 in 2018 to $55.60 in 2019 — as well as a 5.8% decrease in domestic sales as reasons for the decline in revenues.

Pemex invested $10.3 billion last year, primarily in exploration and production, but also in industrial upgrades, logistics, drilling and other services.

In the last quarter of 2019, Pemex’s monthly production rose only 0.04%, while investment in exploration and production rose 13.6%. On a more positive note, fuel theft fell from 56,000 barrels per day to 5,000.

The prices of most Pemex foreign currency bonds worsened the picture after the oil company reported multimillion-dollar corporate losses in 2019 and a global wave of risk aversion shook the firm last week.

Specialists said that wariness of the company’s securities on the part of investors is due among other reasons to the rapid worldwide spread of the new coronavirus, which is keeping global markets in check under the threat of its impact on the performance of the world economy.

“Basically, we’re seeing the ravages of [the financial effects] of the coronavirus, but now with these results, the reduction of Pemex stock is imminent,” said one debt market operator.

Source: Milenio (sp)

Business group decries practice of gifting notaries’ licenses

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MND Staff

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February 26, 2020

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Governor Bonilla and the state's new notaries.

Favoritism by state governments in the granting of licenses for notaries’ offices must come to an end, the head of an influential business group said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters at the National Palace after attending President López Obrador’s morning press conference, the president of the Business Coordinating Council (CCE), Carlos Salazar Lomelín, said that there needs to be transparency in the allocation of licenses for notaries’ offices, as occurs in other countries.

His remarks came after the newspaper Reforma reported that Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla had gifted two notary’s office licenses each to former governor Xicoténcatl Leyva Mortera and the ex-governor’s nephew, José Román Leyva Castro. Leyva Mortera is a personal friend of Bonilla and considered the governor’s “political godfather.”

Unlike in Mexico, “anyone can be a notary” in other countries “as long as they meet a range of requirements,” Salazar said.

“If you do your exam, build your skills, you can be a notary,” he said. “I’ve seen it and that’s one of the things toward which we have to evolve.”

The CCE chief said that “little by little” state governors have to be persuaded to stop the practice of granting notaries’ offices to their friends and associates. Salazar said that the recently approved Citizens’ Trust Law could provide governors, and other officials, the impetus they need to leave bad habits behind.

He said he believed that the new federal law will serve as “an example for everyone” about how to restore the trust of citizens, which in turn will help Mexico become a country “in which we trust one another.”

Speaking this morning about the law – which will get rid of federal government inspectors – López Obrador said that all people have a responsibility to act with rectitude and honesty and to “turn their backs on corruption.”

Source: Reforma (sp)

Collection of rare Mexican cookbooks now accessible online

By

Rich Tenorio

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February 26, 2020

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One of the surprising discoveries was a recipe for turtle soup, said librarian Stephanie Noell. University of Texas at San Antonio

In a unique opportunity, selections from an archive of Mexican cookbook manuscripts dating back to the 18th century are now available online thanks to a recent initiative in Texas.

As of mid-February, 50 of the fewer than 100 manuscript cookbooks at The University of Texas at San Antonio’s Libraries Special Collections have been digitized for reading across platforms, from smartphones to tablets. The recipes reflect diverse culinary styles, regions and time periods in Mexican history, with the oldest volume from 1789 and the most recent from the 1970s.

“We try to be fairly broad in our selection,” said special collections librarian Stephanie Noell. “Pretty much every region is represented in our collection. … We try to make sure we pull from across the board, not just one specific region.”

The previously unpublished cookbooks are part of the overall Mexican Cookbook Collection of over 2,000 volumes at the university library. The core of the collection is the 550 cookbooks from longtime San Antonio librarian Laurie Gruenbeck’s personal collection, which she accumulated over three decades of traveling across Texas and Mexico and donated to the library in 2001.

Last year, food writer Diana Kennedy donated her personal research archives, which include the sole non-manuscript cookbook that has been digitized: a copy of the 1828 Arte nuevo de cocina y repostería acomodado al uso mexicano, a Mexican cookbook published in New York. Noell calls this book “incredibly rare.”

Various recipes are found in the cookbook of Doña María Ramona Quixano of Silao, Guanajuato, dated 1808. It is one of the oldest in the collection. The University of Texas at San Antonio

Cookbook manuscripts are also rare, Noell said. In most, she explained, “people would write down recipes and not anticipate [other] people would put them in a collection and preserve them for hundreds of years. They don’t come up very often. The ones we have are absolute gems.”

The two oldest — the 1789 volume from Jalisco and an 1808 manuscript from Guanajuato — are the only colonial cookbook manuscripts in the collection and the first to be digitized. The author of the 1789 cookbook wrote her name as “Doña Ignacita.”

“Of course, the older the cookbook, the harder it is to really determine who this person was,” Noell said. “There are sort of whole sets from the same family, a documentation of generations of a family. It really depends on the cookbook. Sometimes it’s just a first name.”

Even if the authors’ identities might be unclear, there are some clear surprises in the recipes.

“One of the first surprising discoveries was turtle soup, which I hadn’t seen in a cookbook before,” Noell said. Another surprise, she said, was “brains in fish sauce,” written in English as part of a recently digitized bilingual cookbook.

In some of the 19th-century cookbooks, there are “a lot of tamal recipes” that use rice instead of masa, Noell said. “I have not had tamales with rice filling,” she said. “Now they’re on my bucket list.”

An 1884 cookbook by Sister Guadalupe Pérez of Acatzingo, Puebla. — An 1884 cookbook by Guadalupe Pérez of Acatzingo, Puebla. The University of Texas at San Antonio

Digitizing these historic volumes is a complex and ongoing process. Library staff must use an overhead scanner, not a flatbed one. An overhead scanner will “keep everything in place with the text visible and not squash the book,” Noell explained, noting that individual texts present specific challenges, such as the 1789 cookbook, which has a torn cover page and some curled edges. The digitized cookbooks are then uploaded to a database.

The archive is a culinary excursion through Mexican history, representing a gradual blending of European and indigenous cuisine, such as in gazpacho recipes.

“What you see in a lot of early cookbooks is a heavy European influence,” Noell said. “But in the 18th century, really only within one decade or so that the [1789] cookbook was written, you start seeing gazpacho with tomato, a New World ingredient. That’s not how it was made in the old country.”

She notes, also, that “a lot of early cookbooks are very dessert-heavy. … Back in the 19th century, people really liked dessert. It’s a safe bet some [recipes] were good.”

She likes a relatively more recent recipe, from a 20th-century cookbook written by a German immigrant. “He has a five-minute flan in there,” she said. “I was blown away. … How can I make flan in five minutes in a pressure cooker?” And, she said, “some cookbooks have a whole section for bebidas. You can get some great drinks.”

Noell said that she “would like to get as many of these public domain cookbooks digitized as possible.”

“It’s a really fascinating collection to go through,” she said. “There’s something different every time you go in.”

7 dead in weekend of terror in Córdoba and Huatusco, Veracruz

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MND Staff

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February 26, 2020

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A bus and a military vehicle collide during weekend violence in Córdoba.

Four police officers and three suspected criminals were killed in the central Veracruz municipalities of Córdoba and Huatusco on Saturday, sowing fear among residents who largely remained indoors on Sunday.

The first incident of violence came when an armed group began shooting at a state police station in the city of Huatusco at approximately 5:00 a.m. Saturday, the newspaper El Sol de Córdoba reported.

Police officers pursued the aggressors in a chase that ended at about 7:30 a.m. in the community of Chavaxtla. A gunfight ensued that left three suspected criminals, including one woman, dead.

At 3:20 p.m., another armed group attacked a municipal police watchtower near the Shangri-La Arch in Córdoba, killing two officers. At the same time, two state police officers were shot and killed while traveling on the La Luz Palotal-Los Cerezos highway in Córdoba.

Federal, state and municipal police as well as the National Guard launched an operation in response to the simultaneous attacks that resulted in the arrest of two suspects.

The violence in Huatusco and Córdoba followed the abduction and murder of a man believed to be linked to the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on February 19. Córdoba municipal police are allegedly responsible for the forced disappearance and death of Gabriel Navarro Aceves, whose body was found last Thursday.

As a result of Saturday’s violence, most Córdoba residents chose to stay at home on Sunday, El Sol de Córdoba reported.

“We’re living through a wave of violence … and we’re no longer free,” said a woman identified only as Leticia. “We were walking around [the city] yesterday [Saturday] and heard about everything that happened and went home.”

The streets of central Córdoba were largely empty on Sunday, a rare sight for a day on which locals normally flock to the city’s downtown area to go shopping and spend time with family and friends. Some cultural and sporting events, including men’s and women’s soccer matches, were canceled and many businesses closed due to state authorities’ activation of a code red alert, which indicates a high threat of violence.

Security was beefed up in Córdoba, with helicopters assisting surveillance and marines deployed to the area. Municipal secretary Alfredo Hernández Ávila said that local authorities would ask for the bolstered security measures to remain in place for the foreseeable future.

Writing in the newspaper El Universal, security analyst Alejandro Hope said that Saturday’s violence had left a “trail of terror” in its wake.

He noted that Veracruz Governor Cuitláhuac García said Monday that the situation was under control and that state authorities had identified the aggressors. Hope also acknowledged the state government’s announcement that two suspects had been arrested and that three pick-up trucks and several weapons had been seized.

However, the analyst said that he doubted that the issue of violence in central Veracruz had been resolved.

Hope contended that the criminal groups responsible for Saturday’s violence achieved a “double victory,” explaining that they directly challenged state forces and didn’t pay a particularly high price, and that they effectively imposed a curfew on a city of 200,000 people.

“For now, they are winning the psychological war,” Hope wrote, adding that reversing the criminals’ victory will take more than government statements and the arrest of a couple of suspected murderers.

He then set out a four-point strategy that he described as the minimum required for authorities to wrest back control from organized crime.

Firstly, authorities need to implement “particularly vigorous” actions against not just the direct perpetrators of the violence but the specific group (believed to be the CJNG) behind the attacks, Hope wrote. He said that authorities must prioritize capturing the group’s leaders, attacking their income sources and transferring certain prisoners to federal prisons.

Secondly, Hope wrote that a bolstered security presence is required on the streets of Córdoba and neighboring municipalities, even if it is only a provisional measure.

Thirdly, he said that “the reactivation of accountability mechanisms” is necessary, explaining that security task forces and citizens’ crime-watch committees can help to link authorities to some sectors of civil society as well as generate trustworthy information, among other roles.

“At other times and in other spaces (Ciudad Juárez between 2010 and 2012, for example), a mechanism of this nature was key to the recovery of a certain normality,” Hope wrote.

Fourthly, “a campaign to take back the streets” is needed, the analyst said, asserting that all the cancelled events should be rescheduled and that more activities for residents should be added to the Córdoba social calendar. He also said that special security operations could be carried out in areas with a high concentration of restaurants and bars.

“If the authorities don’t like these ideas, come up with others,” Hope wrote. “It’s not fair to allow an important city in a crucial state to become a hostage of terror imposed by a few criminals. … If things remain the same, there will be more Córdobas. A lot more.”

Source. El Sol de Córdoba (sp), El Universal (sp)

Scientists rule out theory that a new volcano is arising in Michoacán

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MND Staff

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February 26, 2020

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The area in which the earthquakes have been recorded.

Increased seismic activity in Michoacán since the start of last month will not lead to the birth of a new volcano, National Autonomous University (UNAM) scientists have concluded.

There have been more than 3,000 earthquakes with magnitudes between 2.6 and 4.1 since January 5 in an area northwest of Uruapan near the Paricutín Volcano, according to the National Meteorological Service.

About 50 experts from several universities and government agencies traveled to the area to carry out tests to determine whether the earthquake swarm – as a sequence of similar magnitude seismic events occurring in a local area in a relatively short period of time is known – is related to tectonic or magmatic events.

A magmatic event occurs when magma – the molten or semi-molten material from which igneous rocks are formed – moves horizontally or vertically beneath the surface of the earth. Large volumes of magma can potentially break through the surface and form a volcano, as occurred in Michoacán in 1943 with the sudden emergence of the Paricutín Volcano.

Servando de la Cruz Reyna, a researcher in the volcanology department of the UNAM Institute of Geophysics, said that magma has been identified as the most likely cause of the earthquakes in Michoacán but ruled out the possibility of the birth of a volcano because the fracturing of the crust of the Earth has been minimal.

“It is suggested that the source of the force is the movement of magma but at depths of 10 kilometers or more. This is very common in volcanic areas,” he said.

De la Cruz said that scientists have concluded that most of the magma movements are horizontal rather than vertical and for that reason the molten material won’t ascend to the surface of the earth.

Hugo Delgado, director of the Institute of Geophysics, explained that the expert team led by the UNAM scientists carried out a range of studies before ruling out the possibility of the birth of a volcano. They included taking measurements with magnetometers, measuring the levels of carbon dioxide in the soil, testing for the presence of radon, analyzing samples of water collected in the area and looking at deformations in the surface of the Earth.

De la Cruz said that earthquake swarms have occurred in the same region of Michoacán on four occasions but only the first series of earthquakes resulted in the formation of a volcano.

“The first was in 1943 and culminated in the birth of the Paricutín Volcano. Subsequently, there were three others in 1997, 1999 and 2006,” he said, adding that the characteristics of the 2006 earthquake swarm were similar to those of the current one.

Carlos Gutiérrez Martínez, an official with the National Disaster Prevention Center, said that there has been constant communication between the federal government and the UNAM Institute of Geophysics as the studies of the earthquake swarm were taking place.

He explained that government officials have attended technical meetings with the scientists and have been careful not to overreact to the increased frequency of earthquakes in the area.

Source: El Financiero (sp)

Testing underway for presence of coronavirus; still no cases found

By

Cody Copeland

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February 26, 2020

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The Ministry of Health announced on Monday that it is testing over 5,000 blood samples from across the country for presence of the coronavirus known as Covid-19.

Government epidemiologists said that the samples tested negative for the seasonal and A/H1N1 strains of the flu, and the results of the Covid-19 tests will be released this week.

In light of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) announcement that the world should prepare itself for a possible pandemic of the virus, the Health Ministry’s epidemiology department said that it would update the country’s response to the international outlook.

“So far we have no intention of joining Italy and other countries in their unnecessary travel warnings, as happened in China,” said José Luis Alomía Zegarra, director of epidemiology for the Ministry of Health.

He added that such decisions “will depend on the evolution or containment of [the virus].”

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell announced on Tuesday that there was still no sign of Covid-19 in the country.

“The coronavirus has not arrived in Mexico. We have [investigated] 18 suspicious cases and each and every one of them has been ruled out,” he told reporters at the president’s morning press conference.

He said that the Pan American Health Organization recognized Mexico as the first country to adopt a protection protocol after Monday’s announcement to test the samples that came up negative for other strains of the flu.

“And we’re constantly looking for new alternatives to make this protocol more efficient. It’s a general sampling. We received over 5,000 samples of all of the acute respiratory diseases [in the country],” he said, adding that so far results have come up negative.

To date, cases of Covid-19 have been reported in 29 countries outside of China. The number of cases and deaths is expected to rise, considering that the original source of the disease is still unknown and cases of person-to-person transmission have been documented.

More information is needed to determine the incubation period of the virus and whether or not transmission can occur from asymptomatic people.

The WHO reports that the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, fatigue and a dry cough. Some patients experience general malaise, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat and diarrhea.

Patients have recuperated without any specific treatment in as many as 85% of cases, but those who experience difficulty breathing require specialized treatment. The most at-risk people are the elderly with conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure and pre-existing heart disease.

As of Wednesday, there were more than 81,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, and at least 2,700 people have died. Tuesday’s figures revealed that for the first time there were more new cases outside China than inside. Chinese officials reported 411 new infections. In the rest of the world there were 427.

Sources: Milenio (sp), El Universal (sp), New York Times (en)