Mexico raises alert for COVID-19 in almost the entire country

MEXICO CITY –

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The Ministry of Health on Friday raised the alert level for new cases of COVID-19 in almost all of Mexico.

Of the 32 states in the country, 15 are now on medium alert (known as yellow traffic light), 13 on high alert (orange) —among them Mexico City and its suburbs_, and one on maximum alert (red), the state of Sinaloa in the north.

Despite the fact that 45% of the adult population has already been vaccinated, infections have been growing for days in this third wave of the pandemic. And the affected population is especially the younger population, which has been more mobile and has not yet been immunized.

The head of Government of the capital, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced that as of next week the vaccination of those over 18 will begin and that more tests will be carried out to track infections, but indicated that an increase in restrictions is not expected. of the activities.

Fortunately, the levels of hospitalization and mortality have not grown at the same level as infections, but the exponential rate of daily infections is worrying, which already exceeds 16,400 cases throughout the country, more than in the first wave.

The peak of infections was recorded in January with more than 20,700 cases nationwide in a single day.

In total, Mexico has confirmed more than 2.7 million infections since the pandemic began in the country, with almost 238,000 confirmed deaths, although, according to official data, the real total of deaths associated with COVID-19 is around 360,000.

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