Massive layoffs of construction workers in Riviera Nayarit

March 30, 2020

Thousands of construction workers in the Riviera Nayarit have been laid off due to the growing outbreak of Covid-19.

Many of the mostly indigenous workers who have lost their jobs moved either temporarily or permanently to the Bahía de Banderas town of Jarretaderas, Nayarit, from states such as Chiapas, Puebla and Veracruz to work on hotel and condominium projects in both the Riviera Nayarit and the nearby resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco.

However, with construction projects suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of the interstate workers have decided to head home.

Librado Consueda, a bus driver currently transporting workers between Jarretaderas and the Chiapas capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez, told the newspaper La Jornada that thousands of people have left Nayarit since special services between the two destinations began on March 20.

“Those of us who make a living doing trips from Jarretaderas to Chiapas are doing very well,” he said.

“The people who are leaving are being laid off without any [compensation]. The families of a lot of people are sending them money to pay for their ticket to go back,” Consueda said, explaining that the workers will not receive any pay while they are not working.

“They [the developers] are saying that they’ll probably call them to go back [to work] on April 28,” he added.

One of the affected workers who decided to return to Chiapas is a man identified by La Jornada only as Francisco.

“They’re stopping all the projects. They stopped our work two weeks ago because of the coronavirus. I was working on projects in the [Puerto Vallarta] hotel zone … from there I went to [the Nayarit resort town] Bucerías and the same thing happened,” he said before boarding a bus to head home.

Explaining that he has a wife and children to support, Francisco said that he planned to return to Nayarit once the coronavirus threat passes.

“I don’t know what we’re going to do to survive because there’s no work in Chiapas. It’s complicated, I don’t know how long [the health crisis] will last,” he said.

Two other construction workers in a similar situation are Julio César and Esteban.

“They told me: ‘prepare yourself because everything is closing on Thursday because of the virus,’” the former told La Jornada.

Esteban, a man in his 20s who has been working on a residential project in Nuevo Vallarta, said that he was returning to his home town of San Lucas, located 75 kilometers southeast of Tuxtla. He complained that the coronavirus pandemic was being used as an “excuse” to raise prices.

“Everything’s going up, even the [bus] ticket. Everything is more expensive,” he said.

Esteban also complained that construction companies were violating workers’ rights by laying them off without any severance pay.

Amado, 27, said that most workers would struggle to support themselves and their families during the construction suspension caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

“There are a lot of people who live day by day to support their families. If I don’t work for a week, my family suffers,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands or even millions of other workers across a range of sectors including tourism, hospitality and retail are likely to lose their jobs as a result of a coronavirus-fueled economic downturn.

Authorities in many states have ordered a range of non-essential businesses to shut as part of efforts to contain the spread of the infectious disease, which had infected just under 1,000 people in Mexico as of Sunday.

Source: La Jornada (sp)

Ex-Pemex official detained over 27-million-peso bribe

Cody Copeland

March 30, 2020

Former Pemex official Núñez. — Former Pemex manager Núñez.

The federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR) arrested a former Pemex manager accused of having embezzled 27 million pesos (US $1.1 million at today’s exchange rate) after three fuel companies gave him the money for tankers that were never delivered.

The former deputy director of operations at Pemex Logistics, Luis Alberto Núñez Santander, promised the companies a total of 700 tankers of gasoline in exchange for a 30% advance, but allegedly never came through with his side of the deal.

The FGR said its special corruption division executed an arrest warrant for Núñez for his probable role in crimes of the misuse of his office, powers and faculties.

“Luis N. is probably responsible for procedural irregularities while employed as a public servant,” the FGR said in a press release.

Núñez began his career at Pemex in 1995 in the pipelines division. It was during his tenure as deputy director of operations that the subsidiary company Pemex Logistics was created in 2015.

The division integrates the transportation, warehousing and distribution of fuel.

President López Obrador announced in February 2019 that rooting out corruption in the company was part of his administration’s plan to rescue it from financial ruin and strengthen its capacity for exploration and production.

Since then a number of current and former Pemex employees have been investigated and/or arrested for participating in corrupt practices.

Former Pemex union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps resigned in October after corruption allegations that were made for years led to charges of money laundering and illicit enrichment.

Also in October of last year, it was announced that the oil services company Oro Negro had hired private investigators to record a conversation with two Pemex employees in which they explained how to engage in bribery at the oil company.

Oro Negro used the recording as evidence in a lawsuit against Pemex in which it claimed that Pemex drove it to bankruptcy when it refused to pay bribes.

President López Obrador claimed to have “saved Pemex” in January 2020, after production didn’t fall for the first time in 14 years, but market analysts said the debt and corruption-riddled company still has a long way to go.

Source: Reforma (sp)

Few measures in place to check health of travelers crossing US border

Cody Copeland

March 30, 2020

Police hand out informational brochures at the border in Ciudad Juárez.

Although the United States leads the world in cases of Covid-19, there are currently no restrictions on people entering Mexico from its northern neighbor and few states are doing anything to prevent them from bringing the coronavirus across the border.

United States President Donald Trump announced on March 20 the suspension of all nonessential travel across the U.S.-Mexico border. The suspension allows U.S. citizens, permanent residents and people with essential work to cross into the United States, but does nothing to stop anyone from going the other way.

As of Sunday, only Tamaulipas and Sonora had instituted preventative measures at their border crossings, despite the announcement by chief U.S. epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci that the death toll in the United States could go as high as 200,000 people.

As of Monday, there were 153,246 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the United States, and 2,828 deaths from the disease.

The busiest crossings on the border — in Tijuana, Baja California, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua — have implemented no preventative measures beyond handing out flyers to those entering Mexico.

A government worker takes temperatures of travelers in Tamaulipas.

In Juárez, traffic officers wearing protective clothing handed out flyers containing general and preventative information on Covid-19 to people crossing from El Paso, Texas, on Sunday. They did not inquire about symptoms, take temperatures or attempt to regulate entry in any way.

At the time of publication, Chihuahua had six confirmed cases of Covid-19, while in Texas the number was over 2,500 and rising.

At the frontier’s busiest crossing in Tijuana, just south of San Diego, California, border officials were doing even less than their counterparts in Juárez.

A U.S. citizen who crosses the border daily told the newspaper El Universal that no one asks her anything thing about her health when she enters Tijuana, but U.S. border officials ask her if she’s had symptoms when she returns to California.

The crossings in the border towns of Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña, in Coahuila, likewise had not implemented specific control measures related to Covid-19 as of Sunday. They are across the border from Eagle Pass and Del Rio, Texas, respectively.

On the other hand, the state of Tamaulipas deployed 250 health officials to its 15 international crossings with the United States on Sunday. They took people’s temperatures and distributed hand sanitizer to those crossing into the state.

Health and customs officials in Sonora have been taking temperatures and checking for symptoms among those entering since March 25.

The governors of Nuevo León, Coahuila and Tamaulipas called on the federal government on Friday to take action on the country’s northern border.

“We don’t have the faculties to close the border, but [President Andrés Manuel López Obrador] does and he should use them,” said Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez Calderón.

Source: El Universal (sp)

Highway linking Oaxaca city and coast is 58% complete

Cody Copeland

March 30, 2020

Paving under way on the new highway in Oaxaca.

Construction of a highway that will connect and drastically cut travel time between Oaxaca city and the coastal city of Puerto Escondido is currently 58% complete, according to state development bank Banobras.

Oaxaca Governor Alejandro Murat announced in February that the long overdue highway is on track to be completed in 2022.

The 6.8-billion-peso (US $280-million) Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway will cut the 6 1/2-hour trip from the state capital to the popular surfing and beach destination to an estimated 2 1/2 hours.

The 104.2-kilometer route will connect Highway 175 at the town of Barranca Larga — a little over an hour south of Oaxaca city — with coastal Highway 200 in the municipality of Santa María Colotepec, just to the east of Puerto Escondido.

President López Obrador announced in June 2019 that the highway would finally see completion during his administration, as well as the similarly long overdue Mitla-Tehuantepec highway, in the east of the state. The projects floundered during previous administrations.

He toured the highway with Governor Murat earlier this month and said that Oaxaca was an example for the rest of the country in road construction.

“The construction workers in Oaxaca are the best in the world,” he said. “We’re building roads differently, not the conventional way, not how it was done before. We’re doing it with the participation of the people.”

In January, he visited Oaxaca communities to observe the results of a government program to give road investment money directly to communities in order to improve infrastructure. He called the road a “work of art” built by the people and “free of corruption.”

During his visit earlier this month, he said that his administration was able to make the investments happen as a result of its efforts to root out corruption in the government.

“That’s why we can have this budget without raising taxes or gas prices, without getting the country in debt,” he said.

The Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway will have 10 bridges, a viaduct, three tunnels, nine junctions and two toll booths. In addition to tourism, it will benefit over 100,000 inhabitants of the region it traverses, as it will provide them with a faster way to get to the coast.

It is expected to see around 2,000 vehicles per day upon completion, and the speed limits will be set to 90-110 kilometers per hour.

Banobras said that the project will have generated 1,800 direct and 3,500 indirect jobs in the region.

Sources: Revista Transportes y Turismo (sp), Quadratin (sp)

Stay at home, says health official: now is the time to slow virus’s spread

MND Staff

March 30, 2020

López-Gatell speaks at Saturday's conference.

As cases of Covid-19 continue to rise steadily, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell issued some blunt advice to Mexicans on Saturday: stay at home for the next month.

Flanked by Health Minister Jorge Alcocer and Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard, López-Gatell spoke forcefully at a press conference on Saturday night, telling Mexicans they have a final opportunity to slow the spread of the virus and thus reduce deaths and avoid the health system being overwhelmed.

“We must [all] contribute to reduce the intensity of the pandemic,” he said. “We need to adopt all of the instructed [social distancing] measures.”

Reducing the speed of the transmission of the virus – there were 993 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the country as of Sunday – is “urgent,” López-Gatell said.

“It’s our last opportunity to do it and we have to do it now. This requires us … to stay at home en masse. That’s why we’re saying directly to society, to each and every one of the members of this republic, stay at home, stay at home, stay at home because … it’s the only way to reduce the transmission of this virus,” the health official said emphatically.

López-Gatell said that there is evidence that less than a third of Mexico City residents have heeded the call to stay at home as much as possible.

“There is traffic monitoring that allows us to gauge if people are at home and we see that they are not,” he said.

“There has been a reduction of less than 30% [in movement around the capital] despite the government directive. We see that the [social distancing] measures are not being applied with the necessary rigor. … Stay at home … If we don’t all stay at home what will happen in coming weeks is that we will have more cases than we can attend to … and that will lead us to unfortunate outcomes.”

The deputy minister, who is leading the government’s coronavirus response, said that authorities are not currently thinking about ordering an obligatory home quarantine or making use of the police to enforce social distancing recommendations. Therefore it is up to the individual to act responsibly, he said.

Presenting graphs detailing how serious coronavirus outbreaks developed in countries such as Italy, Spain and the United States, López-Gatell said that Mexico must do all it can to avoid reaching a similar situation.

“It’s something that we don’t want to experience – not the government or society because it’s something uncontrollable. That’s why we’re emphasizing this moment of opportunity” to act, he said.

“We haven’t passed 1,000 cases, we still have the opportunity to slow down” the spread of Covid-19, López-Gatell declared.

“Let it be clear that this doesn’t mean that an increase in cases will be avoided; they will keep going up and there will be serious ones and deaths. What we can achieve is slow down the speed of infections so that the hospitals have enough beds when we reach the highest transmission phase,” he said.

On Sunday, health authorities announced 145 new Covid-19 cases, taking the total number of confirmed cases across the country to 993. Among those confirmed to have the disease are Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad and Tabasco Governor Adán Augusto López.

Authorities also announced that coronavirus-related deaths had increased to 20 from 16 on Saturday.

Ricardo Cortés, general director of health promotion at the Health Ministry, told a press conference Sunday night that there were also 2,564 suspected cases of Covid-19 and that 4,955 people had tested negative for the disease.

Of the 993 confirmed cases, 132 are considered community transmission cases while the remainder are linked to overseas travel or direct contact with someone who recently returned to Mexico from abroad. Mexico City has the highest number of coronavirus cases followed by México state, Jalisco, Nuevo León and Puebla.

Cortés said that 86% of the people confirmed to have Covid-19 have not required hospitalization while the other 14% have. Of the latter cohort, 65% are in stable condition, 30% are in serious condition and 5% are on ventilators, he said.

The official said that the ages of those confirmed to have coronavirus range from 0 to 88.

“Although the most serious cases are in people older than 65, we can all get sick. That’s why we should all stay at home; young people can also get serious cases [of Covid-19]; they’re not immune even if they don’t have any comorbidity,” Cortés said.

“When you ask yourself should I go out or not, remember that the virus is waiting for you outside. If you’re young, nothing might happen to you but don’t forget that when you return to your homes, you could transmit the virus to others.”

Cortés said that 90% of the 20 coronavirus-related deaths – 18 in total – have been of men while two women have died.

There have been two deaths in the 35-39 age bracket; four in the 40-44 bracket; one in the 45-49 bracket; five in the 55-59 bracket; three in the 60-64 bracket; and five among Covid-19 patients aged 65 or older.

Cortés said that 50% of those who have died suffered from obesity, 50% had hypertension, 45% had diabetes, 15% had chronic kidney problems and 15% had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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

Staying put at home? The number of food delivery options is growing

MND Staff

March 30, 2020

Mexico City's chinamperos are also delivering their products to people's homes.

In quarantine at home due to the Covid-19 outbreak and don’t want to go out? Fear not: there are a growing number of businesses in Mexico that are offering home delivery options.

Many of the major supermarkets, such as Walmart, Soriana and Costco, offer consumers the option to shop online and have their purchases delivered to their homes, while public markets in cities including Mexico City, Querétaro city and Xalapa, Veracruz, have announced that they now have home-delivery services.

The food delivery service Cornershop (most of the sites mentioned here are in Spanish only) is also an option for supermarket groceries in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Querétaro, Puebla, León, Cancún, Toluca, Metepec and Mérida, while Chekele delivers market products to the Mexico City neighborhoods of Del Valle, Navarte, Condesa and Roma.

At least 18 public markets in the capital as well as wholesale market Central de Abasto are now offering home delivery too.

Among them: the Melchor Ocampo (Medellín) market in Roma, the San Juan Arcos de Belén market in the capital’s historic center and the Mixcoac market in the borough of Benito Juárez. A list of all 18 markets offering home delivery (and the telephone numbers to place an order) appears below.

Mexico City markets that are offering home delivery. animal político

Chinamperos, or floating garden farmers, in the southern borough of Xochimilco are also offering home delivery in Mexico City of fresh products including lettuce, radishes, carrots, beetroot, spinach and chives. Orders can be placed with the Rincón de la Chinampa service by calling 55-25-18-88-24 .

Mexico City food supply official Gabriel Leyva said that the number of markets in the capital offering a home delivery service will grow in the coming days. He also said food supply to all Mexico City markets is guaranteed, meaning that there is no risk of shortages.

Although there is a growing number of markets offering delivery services, Leyva encouraged citizens to continue shopping at their local markets, explaining that they are taking hygiene even more seriously due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Stallholders are using antibacterial gel frequently, especially after handling money, and face masks, the official said, adding that they are constantly cleaning. Mexico City authorities are carrying out inspections of markets to ensure that all stalls are meeting hygiene standards, Leyva said.

For people interested in avoiding cooking, prepared restaurant meals can be ordered in many large Mexican cities via the apps of companies such as Rappi and Uber Eats as well as many restaurants themselves.

For those seeking to purchase non-food products without leaving their homes, the online shopping behemoth Amazon and rivals such as Mercado Libre and Linio are all open for business.

However, Amazon México has announced that it is currently not delivering products that weigh more than 25 kilograms because such deliveries require two delivery workers and makes it difficult for them to observe social distancing practices. Amazon is asking people who have already made purchases exceeding that weight limit to cancel them because they won’t be delivered for the foreseeable future.

While demand for home delivery services has already increased due to the growing outbreak of Covid-19 in Mexico, it is predicted to spike even further if the federal government imposes tighter restrictions to limit the spread of coronavirus such as ordering an obligatory home quarantine.

Pierre Blaise, general director of the Mexican Association of Online Sales, said that with the growing threat of infection with Covid-19 (Mexico officially entered a local transmission phase last Tuesday), more and more people are turning to online shopping for essential purposes.

“We’re seeing in Mexico what is happening in other countries due to the coronavirus,” he said on March 20.

“The businesses with which we are speaking have triple-digit growth [in online sales], which shows the interest in this way of shopping,” Blaise added.

Source: El Diario (sp), Xataka (sp), La Prensa (sp), Animal Político (sp), Informador (sp)

Víctor Merina has been selling flowers in the street for 50 years

Alex Harrison-Cripps

March 28, 2020

Víctor Merina started selling flowers on the street when he was 8 years old. That was 50 years ago. Growing up working on the streets gives you the best education of all, he tells me, where you learn all things good and bad in a place where you are not forced to do anything.

One of those bad moments was when he was shot twice during a gunfight between police and thieves. Víctor has lived with one of those bullets lodged between his ribs for 25 years, as its proximity to his lungs and heart meant it was too dangerous to remove.

He has happy memories too. A smile creeps across his face when he recalls the sense of community, living with friends who also worked on the streets, sharing food and drinks when they could.

Now, Víctor spends all of his spare time with his family and romance is thriving in Victor’s home as he gives wife fresh flowers every week. But really, Víctor says, work is how he shows his family that he loves them. “Without work and the ability to support yourself, what is life worth?” he asks. “It’s the law of life: to work.”

Every day Víctor buys fresh roses from Jamaica Market, which he then sells where Monterrey meets Viaducto in Mexico City. So what’s the secret of keeping cut flowers alive? “Water. Change the water every day and they last longer.”

What he neglected to add was his own talent for choosing roses that will last. I have first-hand experience of Víctor’s beautiful roses; they last for weeks.

Mexico News Daily

Ambassador urges US citizens in Mexico to ‘think hard’ about returning to US

MND Staff

March 28, 2020

The United States ambassador to Mexico has asked U.S. tourists to go home and urged U.S. citizens in the country to “think long and hard” about whether they should return to the U.S. in response to the the growing coronavirus pandemic.

“During these times of uncertainty I want you to know that safety and security of U.S. citizens is our No. 1 priority, we have your back,” Christopher Landau said in a video posted to social media on Friday afternoon.

After noting that the United States government has issued a Level 4 “do not travel” advisory, Landau said: “If you’re a U.S. tourist in Mexico or anywhere, we encourage you to go home.”

“If you’re a U.S. resident here in Mexico, please think long and hard about your personal situation and whether or not you might need the kind of intensive care that’s available in the United States given your particular risk profile,” he added.

The ambassador also said that he would hold a webinar next Tuesday for U.S. citizens in Mexico to address questions about the coronavirus outbreak. He said on Twitter that he would provide details about the event soon.

Landau encouraged U.S. citizens to sign up for the Department of State’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP), explaining that registration allows the U.S. government “to keep track of you” and send direct alerts to those registered.

He added that U.S. citizens in Mexico can call the toll free number 800-681-9374 to access additional information.

Landau’s appeal to U.S. citizens follows a call from Canadian Ambassador Graeme Clark for Canadians here to return to Canada “as soon as possible.”

British Ambassador to Mexico Corin Robertson also posted a video to social media this week, advising United Kingdom tourists in Mexico that the advice of the foreign secretary is for them to “return home immediately.”

She said on Tuesday that both Aeroméxico and British Airways were continuing to offer direct flights from Mexico City to the U.K. and that the latter airline also had flights from Cancún.

“British nationals that are permanent residents of Mexico are urged to follow the advice of the local authorities here,” Robertson said.

Mexico News Daily

Makers community goes to work on protective shields for health workers

MND Staff

March 28, 2020

A health care worker at a hospital in Guanajuato with one of the makers' masks.

Mexico’s community of makers is banding together to support the medical response to the growing outbreak of Covid-19.

Using more than 300 3D printers, laser cutters and other tools, at least 250 groups of makers and innovators across the country are dedicating as much time as they can to the manufacture of protective face shields for doctors, nurses and other medical personnel who are currently treating people with coronavirus and are likely to see a much greater influx of patients as the outbreak of the disease worsens.

Groups have formed in Mexico City and states across the country, including Puebla, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Yucatán, Nuevo León and Guerrero, and hospitals in several states have already taken delivery of plastic face masks.

The makers’ work is especially important given that healthcare workers across Mexico protested this week to demand personal protective equipment such as face masks so that their safety is ensured while treating Covid-19 patients.

According to a report by the newspaper El Economista, the makers in Mexico became aware of the need to start making masks after chatting via the internet with their counterparts in countries such as Italy, Spain and the United States, where there have been massive outbreaks of Covid-19 and thousands of deaths.

Many of the designs being used in Mexico were shared by members of the makers’ communities in those countries.

One of the leaders of the efforts in Mexico is Abraham Trujillo, a mechatronics engineer in Acapulco, Guerrero, and head of the México Makers Covid-19 organization, which is coordinating the work of many of the makers’ groups across the country.

He told El Economista that almost 800 people are working with México Makers Covid-19 to produce face masks from sheets of acetate and other materials.

Trujillo said that approximately 700 masks were made with 3D printers this week, 300 of which have already been delivered to hospitals. He explained that the majority of people participating in the mask-making efforts do not usually work in manufacturing jobs.

Trujillo added that México Makers Covid-19 coordinators in states across the country are contacting local hospitals to find out if they need additional masks for their staff. He also said that the office supplies store Lumen has agreed to donate sheets of acetate so that the different groups can make more masks.

The group is also seeking donations from the public of acetate sheets, elastic bands, laser cutters and 3D printers. The group can be contacted via email at [email protected].

Clemente delivers masks to a hospital in Morelia, Michoacán. — Clemente, right, delivers masks to a hospital in Morelia, Michoacán.

In Guanajuato, two young entrepreneurs who operate an on-demand 3D printing business in the city of León have also turned their focus to producing protective face shields. Omar Ramos and María de la Barrera came up with their own mask design by combining different characteristics of protective shields made by makers in both Italy and Spain.

They have already made several dozen masks that they have distributed to hospitals in León and other Guanajuato cities. Ramos and de la Barrera’s business, impresion3d.mx (Spanish only), is also seeking donations to support their mask-making efforts.

Two other members of the makers’ community supporting the response to Covid-19 are Diego Villegas Orozco and Moisés Clemente Guzmán.

Villegas, a dental surgeon, is acting as a coordinator for mask-making groups in Mexico City and has already delivered a batch of 30-40 masks to six hospitals including La Raza National Medical Center, whose workers have protested a lack of protective equipment twice in the past week.

He told El Economista that just three people had joined the efforts to make plastic face shields by last Sunday but that number grew to 88 during the week. Villegas said that the makers in the capital have the capacity to produce triple the number of masks they made this week (220 approximately) provided they have sufficient materials.

For his part, Clemente, a 3D printing hobbyist, is making face masks in Morelia, Michoacán, where he works for a digital education platform. He has already donated his creations to hospitals in his home state as well as Jalisco, San Luis Potosí and Querétaro.

Clemente said that each mask he makes costs 50 pesos (US $2) to produce, adding that he hoped that other people with access to 3D printers and knowledge about how to use them would also join the mask-making initiative.

Another Mexican supporting the efforts, albeit from afar, is Marco Antonio Castro Cosío, who lives in one of the global hotspots of Covid-19 – New York City.

From the Big Apple, the Jalisco native is helping to establish relationships between hospitals in his home state and makers currently producing face masks. The digital innovation researcher said that his aim is to ensure that Mexican medical personnel have sufficient protective equipment to treat an expected influx of Covid-19 patients.

“It appears that the tsunami will reach us [Mexico] later so we have to prepare. Here in New York, a lot of the makers who want to help can’t find materials anymore because we’re at home [in quarantine] now and the majority of stores are not open,” Castro said.

He added that it makes him “very happy” to see so many people contributing to the efforts to respond to Covid-19 in Mexico, where there were 717 confirmed cases of the disease as of Friday and 12 coronavirus-related deaths.

Source: El Economista (sp)

Stay at home, urges López Obrador as Covid-19 cases surge to 717

MND Staff

March 28, 2020

The president urges citizens to stay home in video released Friday.

President López Obrador has urged Mexicans to stay at home as much as possible to help limit the spread of Covid-19 as the number of confirmed cases rose more than 20% on Friday from 585 to 717.

In a video message posted to social media, López Obrador said that if people follow the instruction to stay at home, they will help to contain the coronavirus outbreak and as a result the healthcare system won’t be overwhelmed and there will be fewer deaths.

“We have to be in our homes, we have to maintain a healthy distance [from each other]. … We can go out for essential reasons but we shouldn’t go out to the street without there being something truly necessary that compels us to go out,” he said.

“The best thing is to stay at home. … Let’s maintain this retreat that will help us a lot,” López Obrador added.

Speaking from a hotel in Tijuana, Baja California, on Friday night, the president explained that government workers who are not directly engaged in providing essential services have already been given permission to stay at home. He called on businesses in the private sector to allow their employees to work from home if possible.

“If we don’t retreat to our homes, [Covid-19] cases will shoot up and the hospitals will be inundated even though we’re prepared to receive thousands,” López Obrador said.

He also called on Mexicans to not seek medical care for Covid-19 if they don’t have the telltale symptoms of the virus.

“If there is no fever, no dry cough, no extreme discomfort in the body … and no difficulty in breathing, we don’t have problems – let’s not go to the doctor or to the hospital, let’s try to stay at home. … If we have these symptoms, let’s go to the nearest doctor for an analysis but only, I repeat, if there is fever, a dry cough, difficulty in breathing,” López Obrador said.

He concluded his message expressing confidence that the economy will recover quickly once Mexico gets through the worst of the pandemic, asserting “we’ve always succeeded in the face of adversity.”

The president’s appeal for people to stay at home came five days after he urged Mexicans not to stop going out and supporting businesses such as restaurants and cheap diners.

“Don’t stop going out, we’re still in the first stage [of the coronavirus outbreak]. I’ll tell you when not to go out,” he said in a video message last Sunday.

Borja: Mexico's younger population is an advantage. — Borja: Mexico’s younger population is an advantage.

Two days later, however, federal health authorities announced that Mexico had entered a phase of local transmission of Covid-19 and Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Thursday that phase 3 of the coronavirus outbreak, in which community transmission of the disease is widespread and cases number in their thousands, is inevitable.

Prior to López Obrador’s video address, the Health Ministry announced 132 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, the largest single-day increase since the disease was first detected in Mexico at the end of February.

Of the 717 confirmed cases, 54 are considered community transmission cases while the remainder are linked to overseas travel or direct contact with someone who recently returned to Mexico from abroad.

Mexico City continues to have the highest number of cases followed by Jalisco, México state, Nuevo León and Puebla.

The government’s director of epidemiological information, Christian Arturo Zaragoza Jiménez, told a press conference that there are also 2,475 suspected Covid-19 cases and that 3,542 people had tested negative for the disease.

He said that 11% of the 717 people confirmed to have coronavirus are in the hospital while the other 89% are recovering at home. Among those hospitalized, 63% are in stable condition, 30% are in serious condition and 7% – five patients – are intubated, Zaragoza said.

The official announced that the Covid-19 death toll had increased to 12, explaining that 83% of those who have died – 10 patients – were men and the other 17%, or two, were women. Zaragoza said that the most common pre-existing health conditions in those who have died are obesity, hypertension, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

At the same press conference, Dr. Víctor Hugo Borja, a medical director at the Mexican Social Security Institute, said that one advantage Mexico has in confronting the coronavirus pandemic is that it has a younger population than Italy and Spain, where almost 15,000 Covid-19 patients have died.

However, he added that “the disadvantage is the number of residents per home is higher here,” explaining that many Mexicans live with their extended families.

“That’s why the most important thing is to continue with social distancing,” Borja said.

He said that the coronavirus outbreak will affect Mexico’s large urban areas first before spreading to less populated areas, adding “it’s not expected” that the whole country will be affected by the disease at the same time.

The two officials said that the measures the government takes in response to the pandemic will be dictated by how it develops.

A social distancing initiative officially started on March 23 and is scheduled to run through April 19 but once Mexico enters phase 3 of the outbreak, stricter measures such as obligatory quarantine, a “health curfew” and restrictions on the departure and arrival of flights at Mexico’s airports, are likely to be enforced.

Source: Milenio (sp), Infobae (sp)

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