The number of total deaths from COVID-19 climbed to 213,048, after registering 582 new deaths yesterday in Mexico. The Ministry of Health also reported that there is a total of 2,311,172 infections since the beginning of the pandemic after 4,262 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
During the evening press conference to report on the progress of the pandemic in the country, the director-general of Epidemiology, José Luis Alomía Zegarra, announced that the country presented a 6% increase in positive cases nationwide over the past week.
Zegarra estimated that at the moment there are 26,000 active cases, that is, people who have presented symptoms of the disease in the last 14 days (April 5 to 20).
After 11 continuous weeks of declining cases, an increase in cases has been reported in 10 entities: 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).
However, during a morning news conference, Jorge Alcocer, Secretary of Health, estimated that this increase is not an emergency, but a “slight upward trend that must be addressed.”
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 and Chihuahua (plus of 1,000). In contrast, Nayarit, Chiapas, and Campeche have the lowest number of infections of this type: 119, 101, and 53 active cases, respectively.
The colors of the epidemiological traffic light that will be in effect 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 epidemiology specialist pointed out that there is currently a national hospital occupation of 15%.
Of the 31,621 general beds enabled nationwide for the care of critically ill patients with coronavirus, 4,770 (15%) are occupied and the 32 states register an occupation of less than 30%.
Meanwhile, of the 10,947 beds with ventilators to care for the most critical patients due to complications of the disease, 2,101 (19%) are occupied. The health agency detailed that Chihuahua, Mexico City, and Tabasco register an occupancy between 30% and 49%; while the rest of the entities remain below 30%.
COVID-19 Vaccinations in Mexico
Officials announced that so far, 14,571,509 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca, SinoVac, Sputnik V, and Cansino COVID-19 vaccinations have been applied.
However, in the last 24 hours, 203,435 doses were administered; while only a total of 4,111,121 people have received the complete vaccination schedule (the two doses).
So far, 790,856 people in the health sector have received their complete vaccination schedule; also 53,516 teachers and 3,302,638 older adults nationwide.
COVID-19 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
As of today, Puerto Vallarta has reported a total of 3,621 cases of the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic, and 398 deaths. This means the city registered nine more cases of COVID-19 and one new death in the last 24-hours. Currently, the city reports 56 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.