The entire country is on red alert except for Zacatecas.
MEXICO (El Universal) – The country will begin today the “new normality” with a warning of the Ministry of Health (SSA) “The pandemic has not ended. Until last night, there were 90,664 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 9,930 deaths caused by the coronavirus.
On May 12, the General Health Council approved four agreements for the progressive lifting of the containment measures in the face of Covid-19. As of June 1, the SSA would define a traffic light for each state and, based on the risk, authorize economic, educational, and social activities.
The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, reported that during the weekend, the country increased 3,152 confirmed cases, representing a 3.6% increase over Saturday.
During the daily report of coronavirus in Mexico, presented at the National Palace, Lopez-Gatell stressed that “today the epidemic does not end, today the necessary restriction of mobility in public spaces, to continue mitigating the epidemic of Covid-19,” and stressed the importance of maintaining prevention measures.
“This June 1 is not a return to normality; it is not a free opening of social, economic, and, of course, educational activities. I emphasize this because a society must know that the danger persists and that the entire Republic is at a red light, except for Zacatecas,” he said.
He also highlighted that the only difference with the National Day of Healthy Distance is that, from today, the states will make decisions to reduce infections: “Of course, with the support and technical advice of the SSA federal,” he said.
Regarding the occupation of hospital beds in the Serious Acute Respiratory Infections Network (IRAG), he explained that it has increased by 1%. Nationwide there are 59% of available hospital beds and 64% with a ventilator.
He explained that there are still 16,962 active cases, with an incidence of 13.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. In that sense, he said that the rate of active cases had an overall increase of 2.2 in the last half of May.
The country maintains 36,803 suspected cases of Covid-19 and 788 deaths that are doubtful of having occurred for the same cause. Until yesterday, Mexico City was at the top of contagion, with 25,18 accumulated incidents.
At the conference, the health authority also reported that the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the Ministries of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP), Economy (SE), and Health for the progress made in combating tobacco consumption.
Health Minister Jorge Alcocer Varela said that smoking in Mexico, during the Covid-19 emergency, means that the possibility of a smoker contracting the virus is 2.4 times higher.
Cristian Roberto Morales Fuhrimann, a WHO representative in Mexico, explained that around 15 million Mexicans die from tobacco-related products every year.
“We congratulate Mexico for the progress achieved. We are sure that many more will come, so we guarantee our availability to continue providing all the technical solutions requested,” he said.
Gady Zabicky Sirot, National Commissioner Against Addictions, explained that the tobacco industry pays 43 billion pesos a year in taxes to the Mexican government. Still, it costs the Ministry of Health more than 75 billion pesos a year to attend to the diseases that its consumption generates, not counting the Covid-19 pandemic.
Graciela Marquez Colin, head of the SE, explained that although the so-called vapes were banned since 2008, their use has increased among young Mexicans in recent years.
When the decree was issued to ban the import and export of these electronic systems for administering nicotine, and without nicotine, she added, the authorities faced several injunctions that were ultimately denied.
