A customer's temperature is taken at a store in Guadalajara after Mexico began opening its economy

WORLD

Mexico lifts lockdown amid pandemic

Mexico's President is opening up the country and going on a tour of its south, to re-boot the plummeting economy, in spite of an ominous increase in the new coronavirus infection and death rate in an attempt to find a balance between jobs and lives.

By James Blears

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has started his Southern Tour, by inaugurating the Mayan Railway Project, and then on to Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun, where he commemorated National Navy Day.

His travel schedule will now roll on, taking in the States of Campeche, Chiapas and his home State of Tabasco.

He's claiming that Mexico has tamed Covid-19, in spite of 3,000 new cases per day for the past week, more than 80,000 cases so far and 10,000 dead.

Most Mexicans think this is a massive underestimation of reality, with hospitals overflowing with patients, and morgues crammed with dead.

Thirty-one of Mexico's thirty two States are officially declared at high contagion risk.

Lopez Obrador, who is aged sixty-six years old, is also appreciably risking himself. He's survived two heart attacks, although his closely monitored health is currently described as fair.

He says it's necessary for Mexico's economy to get back on track. More than a million jobs have already been lost, and millions more are teetering on the brink.

Listen to the report by James Blears