Tourists quarantined in Nayarit resort escape in helicopter

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April 10, 2020

The Nayarit resort from which some guests escaped quarantine.

At least four vacationers at a luxury resort in Nayarit escaped a government-imposed coronavirus quarantine via helicopter on Wednesday, says César Guzmán Rangel, head of Civil Protection in that state.

The tourists from Guadalajara were among some 220 visitors at the beachfront resort Los Veneros. The quarantine was imposed when government officials learned that two of the guests at the luxury condominium development had tested positive for coronavirus before arriving at the resort, and the remaining residents refused to be tested.

The quarantine was enforced by the placement of a sanitary barrier to prevent the spread of the virus to other guests, workers and residents of Bahía de Banderas.

An official statement on the installation of the barrier claimed that “all health protocols are being followed, and it means that the 220 people who vacation in this luxury housing complex will be in quarantine; that is, no one can leave for at least 10 days, which is the minimum time to complete the 14 days of isolation that is required to rule out incubation of the disease.”

Los Veneros — where rentals go for around US $1,400 a night — is located on the road to Punta Mita and under normal circumstances, guests are drawn to its “37 enchanted acres along a stretch of almost 1,500 feet of white sandy beach frontage at renowned Playa de Estiladeras,” the resort’s website reads. “Entry is via gated access, with 24-hour welcome and security staff. Recreational amenities currently include inviting swimming pools, a chic oceanfront Beach Club with bar and grill, fitness, wellness and spa services, and an ocean activities center.”

Guzmán Rangel noted that, despite the breach on Wednesday, most of those quarantined supported the measure. “Most of those inside Los Veneros are in favor of what is being done to avoid contagion or to find out if they, too, have already been infected with this virus,” he said.

Governor Antonio Echevarría Garcia did not hide his contempt earlier this week for the two tourists who decided to continue with their vacation plans — it is Easter Week in Mexico — after testing positive for the virus. Tourists “are always welcome,” he said, “but not if they infect our people.”

In a Facebook post, the governor stated that he intended on winning what he called a war against coronavirus, and he would ask the state’s attorney general for help in dealing with those who refuse to abide by social distancing measures.

“If we have to bend the law a little to save the lives of the residents of Nayarit, I am going to risk it,” he said.

Nayarit currently has 18 confirmed cases of coronavirus and has recorded three deaths.

Source: La Reforma (sp)

3,441 coronavirus cases, 194 deaths; phase 3 expected in 15 days

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MND Staff

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April 10, 2020

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Coronavirus cases as of Thursday evening.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Mexico increased by 260 on Thursday to 3,441 while deaths from the disease rose by 20 to 194, the Health Ministry reported.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told reporters at the nightly coronavirus press briefing that two pregnant women were among the 20 people who lost their lives to Covid-19 in the preceding 24 hours.

One woman died after giving birth to a baby boy via caesarean section, he said, noting that the infant had respiratory problems for a brief period and remains delicate.

One of the women who died suffered from obesity and hypertension while the other was also clinically obese and had gestational diabetes, López-Gatell said. He said that pregnant women are particularly susceptible to complications from coronavirus infections and urged them to take special care.

López-Gatell recalled that pneumonia was the second most prevalent cause of death among pregnant women during the 2009 H1N1 influenza, or swine flu, epidemic whereas it normally ranks 12th or 13th.

Deputy Health Minister López-Gatell gives the daily press briefing.

“We have to be very careful with pregnant women, they must be considered very susceptible to dying [from Covid-19],” he said.

Among the 194 people who have now died after contracting the new coronavirus, the most prevalent existing health problems have been hypertension, diabetes and obesity.

In addition to the 3,441 confirmed Covid-19 cases, López-Gatell said that there are 10,105 suspected cases and that 17,950 people have tested negative.

Three in 10 of those confirmed to have Covid-19 have required hospitalization while the other 70% have not. More than 500 patients are currently in serious condition in the hospital and another 123 are on ventilators.

Mexico City continues to lead the country for both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths with 909 of the former and 43 of the latter.

Mayor Claudia Sheinabum said earlier on Thursday that there were likely more than 6,000 cases of Covid-19 in the capital based on the Health Ministry estimate that there are more than 26,000 cases across the country. She asked Mexico City residents to wear a face mask while outside.

Coronavirus by state
State	Deaths	Cases	Suspected	Tested negative
Mexico City	43	909	2185	2972
Baja California	16	239	467	692
Sinaloa	15	138	390	415
Quintana Roo	12	159	217	336
Estado de México	11	399	831	1475
Puebla	10	198	409	517
Tabasco	9	113	360	459
Jalisco	8	139	814	1894
Coahuila	7	129	824	607
Hidalgo	7	47	63	309
Morelos	7	35	56	217
Nuevo León	5	107	687	1378
Guerrero	5	49	141	211
Michoacán	5	46	195	294
Sonora	4	48	194	329
San Luis Potosí	4	47	169	595
Durango	4	16	116	220
Yucatán	3	88	170	362
Veracruz	3	54	443	684
Tamaulipas	3	46	126	296
Nayarit	3	16	41	121
Baja California Sur	2	68	313	269
Querétaro	2	50	73	351
Zacatecas	2	11	61	201
Guanajuato	1	71	290	1213
Chihuahua	1	42	94	184
Oaxaca	1	40	81	263
Campeche	1	14	10	63
Aguascalientes		53	81	571
Chiapas		34	80	180
Tlaxcala		29	94	204
Colima		7	30	68
	Deaths	Cases	Suspected	Tested negative
Total	194	3441	10105	17950

Figures released by the Ministry of Health at 7:00 p.m. Thursday.

Mexico has now been in phase 2 of the Covid-19 outbreak for almost three weeks after the government announced on March 24 that local transmission of the disease had begun. López-Gatell said that that phase 3, in which community transmission becomes widespread and case numbers escalate rapidly, could begin in 15 days.

Authorities continue to urge people to practice social distancing and remain at home as much as possible.

The director of the National Blood Transfusion Center also spoke at last night’s press briefing, explaining that there is not a shortage of blood in the nation’s blood banks but that donations have declined by between 60% and 70%.

Jorge Enrique Trejo Gómora said that more donations are needed to ensure that there is no shortage, adding that a call center has been set up so that blood donors can schedule an appointment at a certain time. By making appointments, health authorities will be able to avoid having large gatherings of people in blood banks, he said.

Trejo also said that research into the use of convalescent plasma – plasma from recovered coronavirus patients – to treat people suffering from the disease is promising. He said that Mexican Social Security Institute health facilities will begin collecting such plasma on Monday.

Source: El Universal (sp)

More communities isolate themselves over Covid-19 fears

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Susy Buchanan

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April 10, 2020

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Tourists, please stay home, say citizens of Huatulco. — Tourists, please stay home, plead citizens of Huatulco.

Across Mexico fear of a coronavirus outbreak has towns shutting off access to outsiders and erecting blockades in the hope that isolation will keep the deadly virus out of their communities.

Visitors have been advised they are not welcome in places like Tecolutla, Zongolica, Tuxpan and Tamiahua in Veracruz; San Javier, Todos Santos, San Juanico and Mulegé in Baja California Sur; Sayulita in Nayarit; Santa Clara in Sonora; Solferino, Holbox and Chiquilá in Quintana Roo; San Juan Bautista, Oaxaca; Ocozocuautla, Chiapas; Río Lagartos, Yucatán; and Samalayuca, Urique and General Cepeda, Coahuila.

Many of these towns simply do not have the medical infrastructure necessary to care for coronavirus victims.

In Mulegé, a town of about 3,000 located midway up the Baja Peninsula, the mayor warned that residents who were irresponsible enough to take a vacation during the coronavirus crisis would not be welcomed back home until the danger of infection has subsided.

Further south on the peninsula, residents of Todos Santos took it upon themselves to close both northern and southern access roads into their town, blocking the roads with vehicles and hazard tape. Food and other supplies are still welcome in this Pueblo Mágico, or Magical Town. Tourists are clearly not.

In Tecolutla, a resort town on the Gulf of Mexico in Veracruz, the local government issued a statement warning that “for security reasons and to ensure the health of all, people and tourists are informed that vehicles and foreigners may not enter this municipality as part of coronavirus preventative measures. We appreciate your understanding and support, please postpone your trip, we will be waiting for you another time.”

In Huatulco, Oaxaca, residents blocked access to the airport using cars, tree trunks and large rocks, hoping to send a message to airlines to stop bringing tourists into their town. After one person in Huatulco was diagnosed with coronavirus, police closed access to Santa María Colotepec two hours up the road. Similarly, 26 other towns in Oaxaca have shut down access to non-residents.

The country currently has close to 3,500 coronavirus cases and has recorded nearly 200 deaths.

Source: Excélsior (sp), El Imparcial de Oaxaca (sp)

Puerto Vallarta to step up quarantine enforcement on beaches

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Cody Copeland

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April 9, 2020

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One of two tourists who harassed and assaulted a reporter on a Puerto Vallarta beach.

Authorities in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, will beef up patrols on the city’s beaches to clear them of tourists who refuse to abide by the city’s measures to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.

Depending on the severity of the infraction, officers will be able to impose fines and even arrest those who refuse to follow the preventative guidelines.

The decision came after local reporter Doraliz Terrón was verbally and physically attacked by two foreign tourists while reporting on visitors and businesses not complying with the prohibition on beach service.

The two men have since been identified as Terry Redue and Guy Carey of Vancouver, Canada.

“If people don’t want to leave [the beaches voluntarily], we will have to use public force to remove them,” Puerto Vallarta Mayor Arturo Dávalos Peña told a press conference on Wednesday.

In reference to Fidencio’s Restaurant, where Monday’s incident took place, he said he ordered it to be shut down, as well as “all those who are not respecting the health measures.”

Dávalos’ original order to close the beaches included patrols, but after navy officers whom Terrón asked for help did nothing to enforce the guidelines or ensure her safety, he said he recognized it was necessary to reinforce security operations on the beaches.

The reinforcements will marshal officers from Civil Protection, the fire department, police, National Guard and navy to ensure “the safety and, of course, health of all of us who live here in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta.”

Sources: Debate (sp), Puerto Vallarta Daily News (en)

Mexico purchases medical supplies from China, ventilators from Denmark

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MND Staff

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April 9, 2020

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Ebrard announces the purchase of supplies from China.Ebrard announces the purchase of supEbrard announces the purchase of supplies from China.plies from China. — Ebrard announces the purchase of supplies from China.

Mexico will buy US $56.6 million worth of medical supplies from China to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Thursday.

Speaking at President López Obrador’s regular news conference, Ebrard said that an airbridge has been established between the two countries and that two to four flights per week will deliver supplies and equipment to Mexico. The first of 20 planeloads arrived in Mexico City on Tuesday night.

Ebrard said that another shipment of masks and gloves will arrive in Mexico on Friday night, and thanked China for responding promptly to Mexico’s request to purchase essential medical supplies.

“They shared information with us in a timely manner from the beginning. They sent us all their material translated into Spanish,” he said, adding that the company Meheco has been designated by the Chinese government as Mexico’s main supplier.

The foreign minister said that thanks to the good relations between the two countries, Mexico was able to secure a purchase of 11.5 million KN95 masks – Chinese-made masks that are very similar to the N95 model. Ebrard said that their use has been approved by health authorities in both Mexico and the United States.

He also announced that the government purchased 5,272 ventilators from a range of countries, although the only one he cited was Denmark. The new ventilators, bought with assistance from the United Nations, will start arriving next week, Ebrard said.

Enoch Castellanos, president of the National Chamber for Industrial Transformation, said last week that 35 companies in Mexico will contribute to a project that intends to manufacture 15,000 ventilators to treat coronavirus patients.

Pressure on Mexico’s healthcare system is set to increase as the number of coronavirus cases continues to rise steadily. The Health Ministry announced 396 new confirmed cases on Wednesday and 33 additional deaths, taking the respective totals to 3,181 and 174.

However, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said that authorities estimate that there are in fact more than 26,000 cases of Covid-19 across the country.

López Obrador on Thursday reiterated the call for people to stay at home as much as possible and to take extra care of the most vulnerable members of society.

“We’re behaving very well, … respecting the [social distancing] recommendations, we have information that [people’s] movement has decreased considerably. The fundamental thing is for us to avoid infections. The more we act with discipline … the fewer problems we’ll have with the disease,” he said.

“There hasn’t been an explosion [of the disease], it hasn’t gotten out of control and we hope not to have saturated hospitals.”

Source: La Jornada (sp), El Universal (sp)

As most oil producers cut back, Pemex soldiers on with drilling plans

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MND Staff

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April 9, 2020

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The recent slump in global oil prices as demand declines due to the coronavirus pandemic has led most producers to reduce spending and in some cases their output. But Pemex is taking a different approach.

The state oil company is aiming to almost double drilling this year to 423 wells, the news agency Bloomberg reported.

It also intends to accelerate development of 15 recent recent discoveries despite warnings that many of them are unprofitable due to the current low price for Mexican crude.

Bloomberg also noted that Pemex hasn’t announced any change to its goal of producing an average of 1.87 million barrels of crude per day this year – an 11% increase compared to 2019 – nor has it flagged any reduction in its planned investment of 270 billion pesos (US $11.4 billion) in exploration and production.

Mexico’s steadfastness contrasts with the flexibility shown by Brazil’s Petrobras and Colombia’s Ecopetrol, which have both slashed their capital spending.

Ruaraidh Montgomery, research director at oil consultancy Welligence, said the path chosen by Pemex – as demand for oil and prices remain low – “will most certainly” result in the company burning cash.

“Petrobras is genuinely run as an independent entity that is there to generate profits, but with Pemex, the government’s priority is production growth,” he said.

President López Obrador, who has pledged to rescue the heavily indebted state oil company, wants to boost production to reduce Mexico’s reliance on fuel imports, mainly from the United States. He announced on Sunday that Pemex would get a 65-billion-peso tax break as part of measures to mitigate the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nevertheless, Anne Milne, a strategist at Bank of America, predicts that the state oil company will have negative cash flow of US $20 billion in 2020 if Mexican crude trades at $30 a barrel, well above Wednesday’s closing price of just under $18 and almost triple the 21-year low of $10.37 recorded in the last week of March.

Her dire prediction comes even though Mexico is expected to make a profit from its large oil hedging program. The government has locked in a price of $49 per barrel in its annual hedge that usually covers between 200 and 300 million barrels, while Pemex has its own hedging program that will apply to 85 million barrels this year.

CEO Octavio Romero hasn’t disclosed the price Pemex locked in but the state-run company announced in March that it had received its first payment from the program.

The government’s decision to build a new oil refinery on the Tabasco coast has also been questioned by experts who warn that the investment will divert funds from Pemex’s more profitable exploration activities. There is speculation that the cost of the project could increase significantly from the $8 billion estimate due to the slump in the value of the peso against the United States dollar.

According to Welligence’s Montgomery, Pemex should concentrate on cost control, becoming more efficient and protecting its bottom line by not spending money on growth for growth’s sake.

“You can only keep funding your operations through debt for so long,” he told Bloomberg. “The worst is yet to come.”

Source: Bloomberg (sp)

Nurse attacked with hot coffee: ‘You’re going to infect us all!’

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Cody Copeland

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April 9, 2020

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Nurses are in the front lines but not everyone respects them for it.

There has been another incident of aggression against a healthcare worker in Mérida, Yucatán.

A nurse was attacked on Wednesday by a man who threw hot coffee at her as she left a grocery store.

Ligia Kantun was wearing her nurse’s scrubs as she left a supermarket when a man shouted, “You’re going to infect us all!” and threw scalding hot coffee on her back and legs.

Kantun’s daughter denounced the attack on Facebook.

“I’m angry … Why don’t people understand that they are health professionals … who give their best every day to attend to your family, or even you who doesn’t follow the preventative guidelines,” she said on a post containing the photos of her mother after the attack.

She said her mother was “emotionally devastated” and “tired of the humiliation she receives from the people for whom she is fighting,” and directly addressed the person who attacked her.

“And to you, coward, who I know is reading this, I hope they don’t make you pay too dearly for what you did to my mother today,” she said.

This was not the week’s first instance of anger and violence directed at health workers in Mérida, where another nurse posted on Facebook that people on a motorcycle threw an egg at her while she waited for her ride to work.

Health workers have been harassed and threatened in other parts of the country as well.

In the last two weeks, residents of a small town in Morelos threatened to burn down their local hospital if it treated any Covid-19 patients, and the doors of a hospital in Sabinas Hidalgo, Nuevo León, were doused with a flammable liquid.

Source: El Universal (sp)

State, local governments move to restrict access by outsiders

By

MND Staff

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April 9, 2020

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A coronavirus roadblock. — A coronavirus roadblock in México state.

The number of areas off limits to outsiders due to the coronavirus pandemic continues to grow: state authorities in Colima and those in three México state municipalities are now restricting entry to people providing essential services.

Colima Governor José Ignacio Peralta Sánchez announced that only those who can prove that they have essential work to do in the state will be allowed to enter. He also said that residents are only permitted to be outside if they are carrying out essential activities.

In addition, the governor said that authorities will distribute 10,000 digital thermometers and large quantities of face masks and liquid soap to help residents detect possible cases of Covid-19 and prevent its spread.

As of Wednesday, there were just seven confirmed cases in Colima and 30 suspected ones. However, only about 100 people have been tested for the disease.

Peralta said that now is the time to start widespread testing because Colima has entered into a phase of local transmission – two of the seven people confirmed to have Covid-19 haven’t recently traveled abroad or had known contact with someone who did.

However, the governor said that the state lacked sufficient reagents to carry out testing en masse, explaining that federal authorities “are not sending us enough.”

In México state, authorities in the southern municipalities of Tlatlaya, Amatepec and Luvianos are only allowing the entry of vehicles making food deliveries or transporting health workers, the newspaper Reforma reported. The authorities said that their local hospitals don’t have sufficient personnel or supplies to attend to an influx of Covid-19 patients.

The mayor of Tlatlaya announced the measure on social media, local radio and via loudspeaker announcements.

“All residents of Tlatlaya are informed that the entry to and exit from our municipality is strictly prohibited. The main and alternate access roads will be blocked, you will not be able to enter or leave. The intention is to have not a single coronavirus case in Tlatlaya,” he said.

The move comes after communities in several other states took the decision to block entry to outsiders to combat the spread of coronavirus.

The number of confirmed cases in Mexico passed 3,000 on Wednesday but health authorities estimate that there are actually more than 26,000 cases of the disease in the country.

Source: Milenio (sp), Reforma (sp)

At least 97 workers infected with Covid-19 in four IMSS hospitals

By

MND Staff

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April 9, 2020

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Workers disinfect the hospital in Tlalnepantla on Wednesday.

At least 97 workers at four hospitals operated by the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) have been infected with Covid-19 and three others have died.

Data from the Coahuila Health Ministry shows that 32 workers at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova have tested positive for Covid-19. Among them are 17 doctors, 11 nurses and four administrative employees.

Another 24 employees are suspected to have been infected but have not yet been tested or their results of their tests are not yet known. Three others, including an emergency room doctor and the hospital’s administrative director, died after testing positive.

The doctor had treated the first known Covid-19 patient at the Monclova hospital, a truck driver who arrived at the emergency department on March 18 and died 10 days later.

Governor Miguel Riquelme said Wednesday that 76 health care workers across Coahuila have tested positive for Covid-19, a figure that represents approximately 60% of all cases in the northern border state.

In Baja California Sur, 42 medical and administrative workers at the IMSS General Hospital in Cabo San Lucas have also tested positive for the novel coronavirus. State IMSS director José Luis Ahuja Navarro said that all 42 staff members are currently in isolation at their homes. He rejected any suggestion that health authorities had tried to hide information about the outbreak.

The Cabo San Lucas hospital cases account for almost two-thirds of the 68 confirmed cases in Baja California Sur.

In Morelos, IMSS authorities reported that four emergency department workers – one doctor and three nurses – at the Cuernavaca General Hospital tested positive after treating a Covid-19 patient in March, while 19 doctors at the Regional General Hospital in Tlalnepantla, México state, have also contracted the disease.

Although IMSS General Director Zóe Robledo said that the Tlalnepantla cases did not originate in the hospital, medical personnel who work there have demanded the implementation of stricter safety measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

They say there are no temperature checks of patients and staff when entering the emergency department and that the hospital lacks alcohol-based gel for hand hygiene.

Despite the fact that the facility in Tlalnepantla — a municipality in the greater Mexico City metropolitan region — has been designated as a frontline hospital for Covid-19 treatment, staff say they lack sufficient supplies and personnel to attend adequately to all patients.

The IMSS hospital in Cabo San Lucas, where 42 workers have tested positive for Covid-19.

They also say that they have insufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves and gowns. Some nurses fear that they have been infected with Covid-19 and have subsequently passed the virus on to other staff members as well as patients’ family members.

“We’re afraid because we have family. Colleagues are falling sick every day. There are no tests [for employees] or very few. … Now there are 170 colleagues off work because they are suspected [to have Covid-19],” said one hospital employee.

A nurse said that authorities should take the decision only to accept Covid-19 patients at the facility to avoid infections among people with other health problems.

“The ideal would be to avoid … [admitting] patients who have other types of illnesses and send them to other … hospitals,” the nurse said.

A lack of PPE has left health workers in many parts of the country without adequate protection to treat Covid-19 patients, triggering widespread protests.

Healthcare workers at the IMSS facilities where employees have been infected told the newspaper El Universal that they are exposed to the risk of infection on a daily basis due to insufficient quantities of PPE.

“They send us to war without a gun,” said one worker. “We have to fight so that they give us face masks and gloves,” said another, adding that some have workers have made their own plastic face shields to wear while on duty.

The government has acknowledged that some public health care facilities don’t have sufficient PPE supplies but has committed to bringing 20 shipments from China to meet workers’ needs.

An Aeroméxico aircraft dubbed Missionary of Peace returned to Mexico from China on Tuesday night, touching down in the capital with the first shipment of medical equipment and supplies including 800,000 much-needed N95 masks and 1 million gloves.

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

The label might say manchego but that’s not necessarily what it is

By

Cody Copeland

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April 9, 2020

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The label might say manchego but that's not necessarily what it is. — The label might say manchego but is it?

It may look, smell and taste like cheese, but much of the creamy manchego on grocery store shelves in Mexico simply isn’t, according to the federal consumer protection agency Profeco.

The agency analyzed 46 popular brands found in supermarkets across the country and found that many do not give the consumer the product advertised on the label.

The study looked at the contents of 29 brands from Mexico, six from Spain, eight cheese imitation products, two processed cheeses and one made from goat’s milk. It found that the brand Sabores de Mi Tierra had too much added vegetable oil to be called cheese.

Other labeling problems the study found included incorrect nutritional value information, undeclared ingredients, omission of the country of origin of the ingredients and even brands that contained less product than stated on the label, among others.

The brands Walter and Cremería Covadonga failed to include the country of origin on the labels, as did Lalo on its regular and lactose-free manchego slices.

Eight of the products analyzed were found to contain less than the amount advertised on the label. These were all 200 to 400-gram packages of block, sliced, reduced-fat, lactose-free and imitation cheese from the brands Caperucita, Cremería Covadonga, NocheBuena, Portales de Prividencia, Zwan Premium, Capone’s and Aurrera.

Profeco went on to list a number of problems found in manchego labeling including the absence of fat or protein content and other nutritional information.

The original Spanish recipe for manchego calls for sheep’s milk, and produces a cheese wholly different to that in Mexico, which is basically Monterrey Jack.

The use of European names for Mexican cheeses has been an issue in the past but two years ago trade negotiations with the European Commission gave Mexican producers the OK for using the names manchego, parmesan and gruyere.

Profeco has also studied the risks to the consumer posed by the labelling and actual content of other foods, such as ketchup and popcorn, and found similarly untrustworthy and incomplete information for the consumer.

Source: El Universal (sp)