Covid-19 spike pushes Mexico to third place in infections

By James Blears – Mexico City

The cases of Covid-19 keep rising and rising in Mexico.

Friday set the single-day record so far, with 8,458 new cases. Fatalities have now overtaken the United Kingdom.

Mexico has recorded 424,637 cases and 46,688 fatalities in the five months since the pandemic first hit Latin America’s second largest nation.

Slightly over 7 percent of the cases are active, and there are 90,000 suspected cases, because the results are still not yet known.

The Mexican Health Ministry says there were 198,000 cases in July, which adds up to 47 percent of the total tally.

There are twelve countries which have a higher mortality rate than Mexico, but this is likely to change.

Emergency situation

Half of Mexico’s 32 States are anchored on red alert emergency level status. This indicates maximum risk of infection.

Health experts are warning that unless Mexico swiftly takes more effective measures, its death toll will rise to above seven million.

Less than 7,300 Covid tests-per-million have been carried out on Mexico’s population.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez Gatell, who’s the spokesman for the pandemic in Mexico, says it’s been particularly badly-hit, in part due to a high level of underlying illnesses, including diabetes and high blood pressure.