The Ministry of Health will no longer issue any more reports on the COVID-19 epidemiological traffic light, the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, announced on Tuesday.
“We have decided that the risk traffic light will no longer be issued, the current warning ends on May 1, and we will no longer issue it,” the official said.
This means that the report for epidemiological week number 13, which includes the days from April 18 to May 1, will be the last one given by the Ministry of Health.
In its latest announcement, the agency determined that the country’s 32 states would remain at a green traffic light, as a result of the sustained decrease in COVID-19 cases.
Epidemiological week number 13 closed with a 15 percent reduction in the number of estimated cases, compared to the previous one.
In the last 14 days, 4,387 people reported signs and symptoms of COVID, that is, only 0.08 percent of the total registered since the start of the pandemic.
Based on the sustained reduction in COVID cases, the government has also decided to establish new health security measures in workplaces that will be announced soon.
“The health safety guideline in the labor force that we issued in the new normality phase that includes a series of indications, a new version will also be issued,” López-Gatell advanced.
Among the modifications is the elimination of sanitizing mats and tunnels that “were of little use,” added the official.
The new regulations derive from Mexico’s transition from an epidemic state to an endemic state, which implies that the special measures against COVID will be replaced by a “way of living with the virus in its characteristics.”
“The SARS-CoV-2 virus is not going to go away from humanity, just as almost none of the respiratory viruses that have caused epidemics have gone away, including the flu. And we have to move from the pandemic state that maintains us with a series of special measures, to a state of living with the virus in its characteristics, technically we call that state endemic; that is, already living with the virus, ”explained López-Gatell.
The Under Secretary also declared that while Mexico never mandated the use of masks, he can say that they are no longer considered essential.
“We are not going to declare the end of the mandatory face mask because we never declared it mandatory, but what we can say is that at this time the use of face masks is no longer essential .”
While you wouldn’t know it by walking in Puerto Vallarta, the State of Jalisco does have a mandatory mask mandate for indoor and outdoor activities, which the Governor reaffirmed today that masks are mandatory throughout the state.
The Ministry of Health will no longer issue any more reports on the COVID-19 epidemiological traffic light, the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo L . . .
