Mexico, the sixth largest coronavirus country worldwide, again surpassed its record for new contagions for the second day in a row. The event takes place a day after having overtaken the UK and climbed to third place globally in the ranking of deaths from the disease. The country recorded 9,556 contagions in the last 24 hours, surpassing the immediately preceding history of 8,458, and totaling 434,193 since the beginning of the pandemic, as reported by the Ministry of Health.In this line, with 47,472 deaths (688 on the last day), it is then the third country with the most accumulated deaths, surpassed only by the United States and Brazil.
In any case, official records were challenged because the Government rejected the possibility of mass testing and, in fact, Mexico is one of the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that takes the least test. Journalistic research and percentage estimates indicate that in Mexico City alone the number of coronavirus deaths is three times higher than officially recorded, according to the NEWS agency EFE. Undersecretary of Health Hugo López-Gatell stated in this regard that it is “impossible” to have the exact numbers of the sick and dead from an epidemic, and argued that the health strategy must be designed based on other data, such as the speed of transmission of the virus. In a joint statement, ten opposition governors yesterday called for Lopez-Gatell’s resignation for giving “contradictory, confusing and inconsistent information.”
It also generated controversy in Mexico the use of the barbijo to curb contagion, since, although the federal and state health authorities recommend it, President Andrés López Obrador refuses to use it in public.” I’m going to put on a cover. Do you know when? When there is no more corruption,” AMLO said in response to criticism from the opposition. Mexico, which recorded its first case on February 28, closed the non-essential economy during April and May, while in June it began a slow reopening by states even though the contagion curve failed to flatten. The pandemic sank Mexican GDP by 18.9% in the second quarter of the year, a historic annual rate drop that hit an economy that was already dragging more than a year into contraction.
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