During the most recent edition of Miss Mexico, 15 cases of Covid-19 were registered among the 32 participants. After spending weeks at the headquarters, in Chihuahua, three cases with symptoms had been reported while 29 cases were asymptomatic at the time of testing.
Through social networks, journalist and presenter, Carlos Loret de Mola, reported on the new positive tests in the beauty pageant. “They report a Covid outbreak in #MissMéxico: of the 32 participants, 15 have tested positive. The ceremony took place in Chihuahua,” he wrote.
This was reaffirmed in the radio program Así las Cosas, by the same reporter. In an interview with Eduardo Fernández Herrera, Secretary of Health of the state of Chihuahua, explained that the authorities learned of the contagion through an anonymous complaint on June 30.
They immediately asked staff and contestants to undergo a rapid antigen and PCR test to verify the results. These came out shortly after and indicated that, in total, 17 people involved in the beauty pageant were infected; of these, 15 were contestants for Miss Mexico 2021.
One of them was from the representative of Chihuahua, Isela Serrano. Through her social networks, she reported that her absence during the final ceremony of the beauty pageant had to do with emergency hospitalization due to COVID-19. So far it is unknown who else was infected.
Fernández Herrera confirmed that one of the infected was Serrano; however, she preferred to keep the rest of the participants who had contracted the virus anonymous.
Another of the revelations that Fernández Herrera made was that the final event of the beauty pageant was held with an audience. He stressed that due to the yellow traffic light in Chihuahua, the presence of people is allowed at certain events and with limited capacity. According to their reports, around 300 people attended the contest at a site with a capacity of more than 1,000.
When questioning if there was an attempt to hide the infections by the organizers of the event, the secretary said yes, as they told him that the person who made the complaint was a relative of one of the contestants, not one of the workers of the contest.
He also confirmed that the announcement to end the contest early occurred shortly after government personnel did the antigen and PCR tests. After accelerating the contest and announcing winners, all the models returned to their states of origin.
Last Thursday, July 1, it was announced that the winner of the 2021 edition of Miss Mexico was Karina Vidales from Michoacán, who will also be the country’s representative in this year’s edition of Mis Mundo. Mariana Macías was crowned Miss Mexico Grand 2021, a native of the state of Jalisco.
The other finalists will compete for their place in other competitions such as Miss United Continents, Top Model of the World, Miss Global City, Miss Costa Maya International, and the International Coffee Reign. Among them are Regina González from Quintana Roo, and Sabrina Góngora from Oaxaca.
Neither Vidales nor Macías has reported if they belong to the group of models who tested positive in the tests applied at the request of the Chihuahua government.
