The Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, announced this Tuesday that Mexico is at the lowest level of the covid-19 pandemic. Contagions have been on the decline for eight consecutive weeks, in the entire country there are less than 12,500 active cases, and 7% of general hospital beds are occupied. “All the indicators are at the lowest levels that have occurred since the epidemic began in 2020,” said the official, who has attributed the good data to the broad vaccination coverage. Almost 80 million Mexicans are completely vaccinated. However, López-Gatell has recognized that while the epidemic is still active in other parts of the world, there is a risk of “reincorporation of transmission”.
Mexico is a country in green. This was stated by López-Gatell in the morning conference of the president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, when referring to the epidemiological traffic light that measures the impact of the coronavirus in the 32 states. The current data is an encouragement for the Government, which has been harshly criticized at many times for its management of the disease. Just a few weeks ago, ómicron was sweeping Mexico, leaving more than 50,000 infections a day in the worst escalation of cases in the pandemic. The strong irruption of the variant stressed the Mexican health system and left it without diagnostic tests. Two months later hardly a trace remains.
In hospitals, 7% of general beds and 5% of those intended for critically ill patients are occupied. This is a reduction of 97% compared to the peak of the occupation in Mexico during the second wave of January and February 2021. Mortality levels are also at their lowest level, the person in charge of the fight against the virus confirmed. The country registered only 15 deaths from COVID-19 this Monday.
López-Gatell has stated that the fourth wave, caused by omicron, was “at the expense of unvaccinated people”: “94% of hospitalizations for covid-19 were unvaccinated. The vaccinated people avoided going to the hospital.” The Mexican government, which has at all times refused to implement drastic measures such as quarantines or curfews, has made immunization the cornerstone of the fight against the virus.
Currently, 79.5 million Mexicans have the complete two-dose schedule and six million of them have at least one dose, that is, 90% of those over 18 years of age have received immunization. In the country, minors do not receive vaccines unless they have some type of comorbidity. The figures vary by state, while in Mexico City or Quintana Roo practically 100% of the population has received at least one dose, that number drops to 71% in Chiapas or 76% in Guerrero. “We continue to recommend that people get vaccinated, no matter if they didn’t get it at the right time for their age. We have a very extensive coverage”, said López-Gatell.
The country has accumulated more than 5.6 million infections and 322,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to official data. There is, however, an underreporting recognized by the authorities. The excess mortality associated with covid until the end of 2021 is 461,000 deaths, a difference of some 150,000 deaths that were not classified as COVID-19 deaths by the federal government.
