With 127 new deaths and 1,308 new infections registered in the last 24 hours, Mexico reached a total of 212,466 deaths and 2,306,910 accumulated infections from COVID-19, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.
After 11 continuous weeks of being down, Dr. José Luis Alomía Zegarra, Director General of Epidemiology, explained that the country presented an increase in positive cases, since between weeks 13 and 14 there was an increase of 4% in the number of COVID-19 infections nationwide. This Sunday began epidemiological week number 16.
He warned about the increase in COVID-19 cases in 10 entities of the country: Baja California Sur (orange traffic light); Chihuahua (orange); Mexico City (orange); Colima (yellow); Durango (yellow); State of Mexico (orange); Morelos (yellow); Nayarit (green); Quintana Roo (yellow); and Tlaxcala (yellow).
Alomía Zegarra considered that this is the effect of the relaxation of health protocols during the Easter holidays, although he assured that the increasing trend can still be stopped since there are still no significant changes in the hospital occupation of these entities.
While this morning, Jorge Alcocer, Secretary of Health, estimated that this increase is not an emergency, but a “slight upward trend that must be addressed.”
The epidemic at the national level is made up of 25,201 active cases that began with signs and symptoms in the last 14 days (April 4 to 19, 2021).
According to the technical document published on the website of the health agency, Mexico City is the entity with the highest number of active cases (more than 3,000 cases), followed by the State of Mexico (more than 1,000) and Chihuahua ( more than 900). In contrast, there are Nayarit, Chiapas, and Campeche with the least amount of infections of this type: 117, 93, and 52 active cases, respectively.
The colors of the epidemiological traffic light that will be in force until April 26 are: no states in “ red ” (maximum risk); In the color “green” (low risk) eight entities remain: Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Veracruz, Nayarit, Chiapas and Campeche.
In “yellow” (moderate risk), 19 entities: Jalisco, Puebla, Querétaro, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí, Colima, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Morelos, Quintana Roo and Tabasco; and in “orange” (high risk) only five: Mexico City, State of Mexico, Chihuahua, Yucatán and Baja California Sur.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Mexico
The specialist spoke of the number of hospitalizations in the country, currently there is a national occupation of 16%.
Of the 30,752 general beds for severe COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization, 4,519 (15%) are occupied nationwide. According to the health agency, so far all entities in the country have an occupancy below 30%.
Meanwhile, of the 10,236 beds with ventilators for the most critical COVID-19 patients, 1,844 (18%) are occupied in the country. Here it was reported that Chihuahua and Tabasco present an occupancy between 30% and 49% occupancy, and the rest of the entities have a lower occupancy.
COVID-19 Vaccinations in Mexico
The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, said that as of yesterday’s cut, there were a total of 127,244 doses applied throughout the country.
However, for the cut-off of 9:00 p.m. on April 18, a total of 3,927,307 people were counted with the complete vaccination schedule. The accumulated doses administered since December 2020 is 14,368,074 nationwide.
Dr. López-Gatell pointed out that 939,960 people in the health sector have already received at least one dose of the vaccine; 150,002 have their first dose, while 789,958 already completed the full vaccination.
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The educational personnel vaccinated is 22,934 of which 5,307 have their first dose, and 17,627 already have the complete vaccination.
Regarding the group of older adults, 10,290,867 have already been immunized; 7,171,145 have the first dose and 3,119,722 have both doses.
COVID-19 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
As of today, Puerto Vallarta has reported a total of 3,612 cases of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, and 397 deaths. This means the city registered two more cases of COVID-19 and no new deaths in the last 24-hours. Currently, the city reports 58 active cases, this being people who have been infected in the last 14-days. These numbers are only from public hospitals, private hospitals are not reported by the federal government, so actual numbers are much higher than being reported. This explains why the death rate in Puerto Vallarta is 11% while the worldwide average is 2%. Cases in Puerto Vallarta are likely 5-times higher than what is reported. A lack of testing also contributes to the low number of cases being reported.
