Faced with the increase in cases by COVID-19, the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, assured that the color of the epidemiological traffic light in Mexico City is to some extent inconsecent.
“Alert by COVID-19, emergency by COVID-19, is there any doubt?” he responded this Friday at a press conference after being questioned about the color of the traffic light in the country’s capital.
“As for the color of the traffic light… it’s to some extent inconsedent,” @HLGatell said about why there is no #SemáforoRojo #COVID19 in CDMX. pic.twitter.com/djrPJcrFCZ
— Political Animal (@Pajaropolitico) December 12, 2020
During this afternoon’s press conference, López-Gatell detailed that the CDMX is at the same level of hospitalization as in May and we are a week away for hospital saturation. “The speed of the epidemic is increasing.”
Faced with the possibility of saturation in CDMX hospitals by #COVID19, @HLGatell replicates @Claudiashein’s message: stay at home, not meetings, not inns, not parties. “This is an urgent call.” pic.twitter.com/7vsdjC4t1Q
— Political Animal (@Pajaropolitico) December 12, 2020
Epidemiological traffic light began operations in June to determine what activities they might open and which might not be in order to prevent contagion, and is updated every 15 days.
This Friday, Mexico City’s head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum, did not disclose whether the capital is in orange or if it has already gone into red traffic lights, although she warned that the capital is in “COVID emergency.”
The civil service member said that beyond the color of traffic lights it is important for citizens to answer the call to stay home.
The CDMX has an average hospital saturation of 74%, for general beds it is 78% and for those with a fan of 62%.
Read: Why isn’t the CDMX going to red despite the increase in COVID? This explains Sheinbaum
In May, when the city was at red traffic light, the head of government reported that the city would remain in that alert color if hospital occupancy was greater than 65% or had two weeks of stable patient growth.
According to local government figures, 50% of hospital occupation was reached on 24 November and 3,455 patients were admitted. Since then the occupation has been increasing, in 16 days it reached 63%.
Last week Sheinbaum Pardo said that to change the traffic light, the Federal Ministry of Health takes into account 10 indicators, and that Mexico City is guided by the color of Traffic Light that it sends in federal government each week, and from there the corresponding decisions are made.
“We established the issue of hospitalization as a central theme (to establish red traffic light), but the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Health has 10 indicators that sets us in the color of the Traffic Light,” he explained.
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