The bad news continues for the Mexican peso, which fell to a record low of more than 24 to the United States dollar early Wednesday morning before recovering slightly.
According to financial data and media company Bloomberg, a single greenback was trading at 24.11 pesos at about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday. Just after 9:00 a.m. CT, the peso had recovered to 23.75 to the U.S. dollar.
In banks, the U.S. dollar was selling for 24.12 pesos on Wednesday morning, the newspaper El Financiero reported.
The dollar has also strengthened against many other currencies as companies and investors rush to free themselves of assets seen as risky, such as the peso, amid growing fears of a global recession due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The peso has now fallen about 30% compared to its best level this year, El Financiero said, adding that it is the worst performing among a basket of major currencies.
The slump on Wednesday followed a 5.4% decline in the value of the peso on Tuesday, according to data from the Bank of México. The peso closed trading at 23.16 to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, which was also a record low at the time.
Financial experts are not ruling out the possibility of the peso falling to 25 to the dollar in the coming weeks, El Financiero said.
Mexican crude prices are also taking a hit due to the spread of coronavirus, growing pessimism over the impact the disease will have on the global economy and an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The per barrel price for Mexico’s export grade oil mix slumped 22.36% on Tuesday to US $18.78 as expectations grow that demand for petroleum will fall due to a coronavirus-fueled recession. The price is the lowest since March 2002.
The price for Mexico’s export mix had declined 66.5% this year as of Tuesday, El Financiero reported, while West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude prices had both fallen more than 50%.
Classrooms are now empty in states where schools have shut down.
The federal Health Ministry announced 11 new confirmed cases of coronavirus Covid-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases in Mexico to 93.
The ministry also said that there are 206 suspected cases and that 672 people have now tested negative for the infectious disease.
With 21 confirmed cases of Covid-19, Mexico City has the highest number of cases among Mexico’s 32 federal entities. Campeche is the only state that has not reported a confirmed or suspected case of the new coronavirus.
Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomia told a press conference Tuesday night that 12% of the people confirmed to have Covid-19 are in the hospital while the rest are recovering in isolation at home. Two patients are in serious condition, he said.
According to Health Ministry data, the youngest person confirmed to be infected with Covid-19 is 18 and the oldest is 80.
Churches have been urged to cancel Mass.
A total of 373 people have been identified as having had contact with confirmed coronavirus cases, of whom 91% have no symptoms of the disease. Of the 9% with symptoms, nine people tested positive for Covid-19.
Ruy López Ridaura, director of the National Center for Disease Prevention and Control Programs, said that Mexico has not yet entered a stage of community transmission of coronavirus but is transitioning toward it. He and Alomia both said that the so-called stage 2 of the Covid-19 outbreak could start next week.
With a widespread outbreak of the disease apparently on the horizon, more and more Mexicans are taking preventative measures to avoid infection with Covid-19, which had sickened more than 201,000 people around the world and killed more than 8,200 as of Wednesday morning.
According to a report by the newspaper El Financiero, waitstaff and street sweepers are among those protecting themselves by wearing face masks and using anti-bacterial gel to disinfect their hands, while mothers on the streets of Mexico City are urging their children to wash their hands thoroughly when they get home.
Tertiary educational institutes such as the National Autonomous University and Tec. de Monterrey have announced the suspension of classes, and the Ministry of Public Education took the decision to send the nation’s school students on Easter holidays on March 20, two weeks earlier than scheduled.
The governments of at least 10 states, however, decided to ignore the directive and suspended classes on Tuesday.
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A range of other decisions have been taken as part of efforts aimed at containing the spread of Covid-19.
The Mexico City government has suspended events that bring together more than 1,000 people, the Mexican Football Federation has canceled national soccer league matches, banks are limiting the number of customers they allow in at the same time and Nuevo León Governor Jaime Rodríguez announced the closure of casinos and movie theaters in Monterrey.
Casinos, nightclubs, bars and cantinas in Jalisco that regularly attract crowds of more than 50 will also temporarily close and many companies are ordering their employees to work from home.
Authorities in Yucatán and Guerrero have announced that they will temporarily close archaeological sites, El Financiero reported, and beaches in Tamaulipas, Sonora and Tabasco will close in response to the public health crisis.
The Catholic Church has recommended the suspension of Mass, suggesting that services could be streamed via the internet to a virtual congregation in people’s homes, while the Passion Play of Iztapalapa, a reenactment of the last hours of the life of Jesus Christ held annually on Good Friday in Mexico City, will go ahead as planned but without spectators.
Meanwhile, President López Obrador, who has been criticized for greeting his supporters with hugs and kisses despite the government’s “social distancing” advice, continues to hold his regular news conferences even though they attract significant numbers of reporters to the National Palace every weekday morning.
The president said on Wednesday that the main focus of his mañanera, or morning press conference, both today and tomorrow would be to provide an update on construction of the new Mexico City airport that is being built on an air force base approximately 50 kilometers north of the capital.
The use of the “México” brand to promote tourism and trade should be resumed, according to the president of the Mexican Federation of Tourism Associations (Fematur).
Jorge Hernández told the newspaper Milenio that if the brand, first used 15 years ago as a way to promote the country’s identity and appeal to foreign tourists, is no longer used, it will only benefit other countries competing with Mexico for tourism revenue.
He said that an agreement between the federal government and the private sector is needed to allow the latter to use the “México” brand legally. “We hope to make up for all this time in which the brand” hasn’t been used, Hernández said.
First used in tourism and trade promotion at the end of the six-year term of the government of former president Vicente Fox, the “México” brand also helped to increase the number of annual visitors to the country during the administrations of ex-presidents Felipe Calderón and Enrique Peña Nieto.
The international trade and investment agency ProMéxico and the Tourism Promotion Council both made extensive use of the “México” trademark. However, as part of wider austerity measures, the current federal government disbanded both agencies, effectively killing off the “México” brand.
According to the general director and founder of the advertising agency responsible for it, its discontinuation is a mistake.
“Destination brands have to transcend time,” Eduardo Calderón, CEO of MBLM México, told Milenio.
“You can’t build [a brand] in one administration; that’s one of the mistakes we make as a country. We think that we can change the identity of destinations at every whim of new administrations. When we look at the identities of traditionally tourism-oriented countries such as Spain, France and Italy, they continue to maintain many of the components they had in their previous brands.”
Hernández agreed, stating that when promotional programs are successful – international tourist numbers roughly doubled during the years that the “México” brand was used from 20 million in 2004 to more than 40 million in 2018 – “they must transcend governments.”
He said that the “Viajemos Todos Por México” (Let’s All Travel Through Mexico) scheme developed by the previous government to boost domestic tourism and attract United States citizens of Mexican descent to the country is another example of a program that should have been maintained but which was scrapped by the current government.
Calderón said that it takes times for country brands to build momentum and have a greater impact and therefore the abandonment of the “México” brand – ranked as the most important brand in Latin America in 2018 by consultancy firm Brand Finance – shouldn’t be allowed to happen.
The advertising agency chief said that the “México” brand now belongs more to the people than the government and represents the whole country.
Calderón said that he believes that the brand can still be used to grow tourism in Mexico, adding that replacing it “will not change any of the negative things we have“ in the country.
He also explained that the iconography of each letter of the “México” brand logo represents a different aspect of the country.
The M represents pre-Hispanic culture and the fusion of cultures. The É represents the thousands of years of civilization in the land now known as Mexico including the period when Spain (España) conquered the territory and established a viceroyalty.
The X is symbolic of the crossing of paths by the indigenous people and Spaniards to form a new mestizo, or mixed, culture. The I, suggestive of a tall building or one of the Satélite towers in the iconic sculpture of México state, represents the architecture and monumental art of Mexico.
The C alludes to the diversity of flora and fauna in Mexico, while the O represents the country’s beaches and extensive Pacific, Gulf and Caribbean coastlines.
The house in Nacajuca, Tabasco, in which President López Obrador lived when starting his political career as director of the local Indigenous Peoples Coordinating Center (CCPI) could be turned into a museum to honor his legacy.
The president lived in the house from 1977 to 1982, but it has been abandoned for at least 37 years and is in a state of disrepair. A development proposal created by the CCPI states that it is in need of major maintenance.
The four-bedroom home is “completely unusable” and on the point of collapse. The plaster has fallen from the ceiling to expose the roof beams and there are no doors or windows. The bathroom also needs remodeling and there are exposed wires in the walls.
The development plan also includes the renovation of the local CCPI office, which is proposed to house a tribute to the poet Carlos Pellicer, a political mentor to the president who encouraged him to take the position as director of the center.
Released during López Obrador’s presidential campaign, the 2017 documentary Este soy (This Is Me) shows footage of AMLO, as he is commonly known, visiting the house and saying “those six years here were one of the most important times of my life.”
“I lived in this house from ’77 to ’82. I lived here with my late wife Rocío [Beltrán Medina], and my oldest son, José Ramón, was born here.”
The president revisited the facilities on February 28 to reinaugurate the indigenous radio station La Voz de los Chontales (Voice of the Chontals), which he himself founded in 1982. It had been off the air since 1989, when then-Governor Neme Castillo refused to fund it.
The president’s son José Ramón posted a video of the visit to Instagram with the comment: “It all began here.”
Animal rights activists in Acapulco rescued and sterilized around 400 stray cats from the city’s Papagayo Park and has put them up for adoption.
The president of the Animal Rights Activists Union of Acapulco, Almarina Navarrete Ávila, said that with the upgrade to Papagayo Park and the use of heavy machinery on the grounds, the union stepped in to take care of the strays since the government wouldn’t do so.
She said that the municipal council told her that “the cats aren’t costeños” — or citizens of the coast — and “they are in a state institution” and therefore had to be removed. The federal Environment Ministry, for its part, told her that it was not responsible for “urban fauna” in the park.
The cats were removed from the state-owned property and taken to a house loaned to the activists for the purpose of rescuing them.
The location of the aptly named Casa de los Gatos Rescatados del Parque Papagayo (House of the Cats Rescued from Papagayo Park) has not been disclosed to avoid uncontrolled drop-offs of unwanted cats.
So far over 100 cats have been adopted after people from Acapulco and neighboring communities heard about their stories on social media.
Navarrete said in a press release that the union asks “residents to be aware of those who commit crimes against animals when they abandon them in public places or mistreat them at home.”
She asked that regional governments implement programs to take care of urban animals, such as animal wellbeing centers and massive and constant sterilization programs. She said that it is impossible to separate animal from human problems and urged sensitivity to such issues in the implementation of public policy.
The director of The Cat Feral Mexico — which helped rescue the animals — said that his organization works to address cat and dog overpopulation through sterilization throughout the country.
“We work in neighborhoods, theaters, empty lots, parks, abandoned houses, government buildings, [etc.] because the birthrate is very high and it won’t be solved by killing them,” Diego Franco said.
AMLO not a 'force of contagion,' says deputy minister, right.
Despite the affection President López Obrador frequently shows his supporters in the form of hugs, kisses and handshakes, he is no more likely to pass on coronavirus to others than anyone else because his force is “moral” rather than one of “contagion,” according to Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell.
The official’s claim came in response to a question asked by a reporter at the president’s regular news conference on Monday morning.
“If he [López Obrador] becomes a carrier [of Covid-19] and he goes … to areas of high marginalization, could he pass on [the disease] or not?” a reporter asked López-Gatell.
“The force of the president is moral, it’s not a force of contagion,” the deputy health minister responded.
“In terms of a person, an individual who could infect others, the president has the same probability of transmitting [Covid-19] as you or me. And you also do trips, tours and are in society. The president is not a force of contagion so there is no reason why he’ll be a person who infects the masses,” he said.
López-Gatell also told reporters on Monday that even though López Obrador is older than 60 (he’s 66), he’s not at “special risk” of suffering a serious illness if he becomes infected with Covid-19 because he’s in good health.
“I’m going to tell you a very pragmatic thing. It would almost be better that he had coronavirus because most likely he, as an individual, like the majority of people, will recover quickly and he’ll be left immune and then nobody would have to worry about him,” he said.
For his part, Lopez Obrador said that he will suspend his tours of the country and making close contact with his supporters when López-Gatell advises him to do so.
“He’ll tell me when it’s not a good idea for me to meet with a lot of people or that I shouldn’t go on these tours … or give hugs and kisses, … he’ll tell me when,” he said.
The president also said that he could hold his morning press conferences without the physical presence of reporters.
“I would come here [to the National Palace], you in the distance, and we would be talking and communicating with the people. What I can’t do is come with a face mask because you would say, ‘if that’s the way the president is, how will the people be?’ I have to give the people encouragement, security,” López Obrador said.
Later on Monday, opposition lawmakers took aim at López-Gatell for his claim that the president is no more likely to pass on Covid-19 than anyone else because he doesn’t have a “force of contagion.”
“They [the government] even use the pandemic for [the purposes of] populism and [to cultivate] a cult of personality,” Democratic Revolution Party Deputy Guadalupe Almaguer wrote on Twitter. “What irresponsibility [on the part] of Hugo López-Gatell.”
National Action Party Deputy Marco Adame wrote on Twitter that the deputy health minister “loses authority by trying to justify the conduct of the president,” adding “it’s not his role.”
Citizens’ Movement Senator Clemente Castañeda appeared to take a swipe at both López Obrador and López-Gatell in one short tweet accompanied by footage of the latter speaking while standing next to the president.
“In times of pandemic, even ineptitude is contagious,” he wrote.
Chiapas teachers set up tents outside the National Palace.
Although it said it would consider the Education Ministry’s request to begin the Semana Santa, or Holy Week, vacation early in response to the spread of Covid-19, the CNTE teachers union is not doing so without skepticism.
A press release issued by union local Section 22 from Oaxaca on Saturday said that the union did not “rule out the possibility that [precautionary measures for the coronavirus] could be the product of a strategy for geopolitical control of interests in the capitalist system.”
The document added that “the working class and the people in general are the victims of such interests.”
It also asked union members and parents to practice proper hygiene, but not to fearmonger with false news about the “so-called coronavirus.”
One government recommendation the union does not seem to heed is that of social distancing. Teachers from a union local in Chiapas gathered to protest in Mexico City on Tuesday.
They set up camp outside the National Palace and demanded an end to the economic and legal repression they claim now reigns in the administration of Chiapas Governor Rutilio Escandón Cadenas.
A total of five marches or assemblies snarled traffic in the nation’s capital on Tuesday. Aside from protests led by the CNTE and SNTE teachers unions, there were demonstrations by electricians and citizens demanding better potable water supplies and the cancellation of the extension of Line 3 of the Metrobús.
At least 6,000 pesos for a test at the Ángeles hospitals.
Two private hospital chains in Mexico City are charging between 6,000 and 10,000 pesos (US $260-$433) for coronavirus tests, the newspaper Milenio has confirmed.
Milenio reporters verified that hospitals operated by the Ángeles chain are charging patients at least 6,000 pesos for Covid-19 tests. The price is almost three times higher than the 2,300 pesos that the government has said it costs to produce and perform a single test.
Milenio noted that a specific coronavirus test is not available at some Ángeles hospitals because they don’t have the necessary equipment.
Those hospitals are instead offering a broader virological test, at a cost of 40,000 pesos, to people who believe they may be infected. The fee includes a medical consultation, personalized care and hospitalization if required.
Test results are available in 24 to 48 hours.
During visits to emergency departments of Ángeles hospitals, Milenio reporters noted that medical personnel ask patients a range of questions such as “What are your symptoms?”, “Have you traveled to the United States, Italy, Asia, France or Germany?” and “Have you had contact with any positive case?”
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Before coronavirus tests are carried out, patients are isolated and tested for influenza and the common cold, Milenio said.
The newspaper said that strict sanitary measures are not observed at the emergency departments at Ángeles hospitals, noting that receptionists and security guards were not using face masks or gloves.
Milenio also visited hospitals operated by the ABC chain and found that they are charging similar fees for Covid-19 tests to their counterparts at Ángeles hospitals, though medical personnel there are observing stricter sanitary measures, the newspaper reported.
People with symptoms of Covid-19, such as a dry cough and fever, are isolated to prevent any possible spread of the infectious disease to other patients, and doctors wear long-sleeved lab coats, face masks and latex gloves when interacting with them.
In addition to Covid-19 testing, patients presenting flu-like symptoms are also tested for other respiratory diseases. If they test positive for either coronavirus or another respiratory illness, ABC hospital staff recommend hospitalization, Milenio said.
Details of the Covid-19 testing costs and procedures at private hospitals in Mexico City come as the number of coronavirus cases continues to climb in Mexico.
There were 82 confirmed cases of Covid-19 as of Monday, according to the Health Ministry, and 171 suspected cases.
The government of Hidalgo has set up an inflatable hospital in Pachuca to deal with a possible influx of patients infected with the coronavirus Covid-19.
There are currently no confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the state.
Workers began setting up the 1,800-square-meter structure on Saturday in Pachuca’s Bicentennial Esplanade and completed the construction on Monday.
The hospital has nine external consultation modules with the capacity to see 80 patients a day, and 40 hospital beds and 10 intensive care beds.
Governor Omar Rayad Meneses took a tour of the facility on Monday night. He announced that the hospital would be sanitized on Tuesday morning and that it should be ready to accept patients by the afternoon.
This is not the first time the government of Hidalgo has installed the inflatable hospital. It set it up for four days in November 2018 in Pachuca’s David Ben Gurión Park to provide free medical care to the public.
Health officials are still recommending the public wash hands and use sanitizer regularly, sneeze into a tissue or the inside of their arm and stay at home as much as possible, as well as not touch their faces, in order to mitigate the outbreak of the disease.
López-Gatell: no evidence to show that closing borders slows spread of the virus.
Mexico appears unlikely to join a growing list of countries that are closing their borders as part of efforts to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus Covid-19.
Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday that according to the World Health Organization, there is no scientific evidence that shows that closing borders contains the spread of contagious diseases.
He added that “closing the borders is not possible without causing damage to society with unpredictable and huge consequences.”
If the movement of people is not allowed, there will be no way to access food and medical supplies, López-Gatell said.
The deputy minister also said that the government has 3.5 billion pesos (US $152 million) to purchase supplies required to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. Federal and state governments are both involved in preparations for a widespread outbreak of the disease, López-Gatell said.
While Mexico isn’t planning to close its borders, many other countries have moved to restrict the entry of foreigners.
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The United States has barred the entry of foreign nationals traveling from China, Iran and Europe’s Schengen Area, while Guatemala closed its land border with Mexico at midnight Tuesday and Canada is closing its borders to all foreigners except Americans from Wednesday on.
At Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, health officials from the Central American nation told foreigners attempting to enter that the border will remain closed until March 30.
Guatemalan Health Ministry sources told the newspaper Reforma that authorities have established highway checkpoints to detect any foreigners who may have entered the country irregularly by crossing the shallow waters of the Suchiate River between Chiapas and Guatemala.
For his part, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday that his government “will be denying entry to Canada to people who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents” with the exception of U.S. citizens, air crews, diplomats and immediate family members of Canadian citizens.
U.S. citizens are exempt due to the high “level of integration of our two economies and the coordination that we have,” Trudeau said.
Guatemalan soldiers guard the border with Mexico.
Flights from Mexico and other countries can continue to land in Canada but they will be directed to just four airports: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal.
Many other countries in the Americas, including Chile, Colombia and Ecuador, have announced they are closing their borders, while a number of countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania are also restricting the entry of foreigners.
But any foreigners stranded in Mexico needn’t worry about coronavirus treatment should they contract it. President López Obrador said today Mexico will treat and care for any foreign patients with Covid-19 because medical attention is “a basic right.”
Foreign citizens will have “full protection and attention. If they are infected, we will take care of them here regardless of their country of origin because that’s universal brotherhood.”
Meanwhile, the Mexican airline Interjet has announced that it will reduce the number of seats it offers on flights by 40%. The company said in a statement that it took the decision both as a health measure and in response to the expected downturn in demand for air travel.
“In the face of the public health issue that Covid-19 represents, the most important thing for Interjet is the safety of its passengers and almost 6,000 employees. For that reason, the company is strengthening its safety and hygiene protocols,” the statement said.
Interjet also said that its aircraft are equipped with high-efficiency particulate air filters that remove 99.99% of microscopic bacteria and virus particles.
