MEXICO CITY (AP) – Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell, the most visible face of the Mexican government during the pandemic, reported Saturday that he tested positive for COVID-19 and that his symptoms are mild.
“I started with symptoms yesterday (Friday) at night, fortunately they are mild. The antigen test came back positive and I’m waiting for the PCR. I will be working from home, pending the vaccination strategy, “he wrote on his official Twitter account.
López-Gatell has served as a spokesperson for the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador since the beginning of the pandemic and has been the subject of numerous criticisms, among other things, for his mixed messages about the use of a mask at the beginning of the health crisis.
This week the army chief, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, also announced that he was positive.
The undersecretary joins the long list of cabinet members, politicians and deputies infected by the coronavirus, including President López Obrador himself, who was infected at the end of January and has already recovered.
Mexico has registered more than two million confirmed COVID cases and more than 178,000 deaths and has applied more than 1.5 million vaccines.
On Saturday, the first 200,000 doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China arrived in Mexico from Hong Kong of the 10 million that the country expects to receive, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard reported on his Twitter account.
The Sinovac drug will begin to be administered this weekend along with those from Pfizer and AstraZeneca. Another Chinese vaccine, CanSino’s, has already been approved for widespread use and is in the packaging process in Mexico, although it has not yet begun to be applied.
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