Starting Monday, August 3 and over the next two weeks, half of the country’s federal entities will be orange and the other half red at the COVID-19 Epidemiological Risk Traffic Light.
The Federal Health Secretariat released the new update of this tool which places 16 states in orange meaning “high” risk of contagion. They are two more states compared to the 14 that were in orange for two weeks and that will continue until Sunday.
Read more: Mexico is the third country with the most COVID-19 deaths and has the largest increase in cases in a day
Meanwhile, the number of states in red meaning “maximum” risk will drop from 16 to 14 from next Monday.
The new states that arrive in orange are Querétaro, Guanajuato, and Quintana Roo. To them are those that were already in that color: Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala, state of Mexico, Mexico City, Morelos, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche.
Map of the COVID-19 traffic light that will apply from August 3
There are cases such as Michoacán and Durango that two weeks ago were in orange but are now in red, after risk levels grew in such entities. In addition, they are kept in red Baja California Sur, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas, San Luis Potosí, Zacatecas, Veracruz, Nayarit, Jalisco, Yucatan, Colima, Hidalgo, Puebla and Tabasco,
So far, there is no federal entity yet that is located in yellow meaning “medium” risk, nor green that this is “low” risk.
At the press conference from Puebla, Health Undersecretary Hugo López-Gatell reiterated that there are four main parameters that are weighted when designing the color of the traffic light: percentage of hospital occupation of patients of severe acute respiratory infection (IRAG); weekly percentage of positivity to COVID-19; IRAG’s tendency to hospitalize patients; COVID-19 syndrome trend.
Measurements to classify states at COVID epidemiological traffic light
López-Gatell reiterated that the validity of the traffic light that starts next Monday will be two weeks, which will not prevent continuous reviews if any alarm scenario is presented.
The Under-Secretary further detailed that after this week’s meeting between the National Conference of Governors (Conago) and the National Health Commission (CONASA) three main agreements were reached:
Conduct a technical review of the indicators and methodology of the risk assessment.
Incorporate new indicators to the COVID-19 Risk Traffic Light with proposals from states through its ministry of health
Conclude and publish the guideline for the risk traffic light calculation methodology
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