Mexican health officials say the country is seeing an accelerated rise in new Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases. The escalating figures indicate a new phase where authorities would impose more measures to keeping the general public indoors and isolated.
Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez Gatell revealed the latest figures Wednesday night during a nightly streamed news conference. The numbers show a spike of 448 new cases in a 24-hour span, placing the total at 5,847. Officials have only tested 42,702 individuals.
Officials also saw a rise in fatalities for a total of 449, up 43 from the day before.
While he did not say when, Lopez Gatell said the country was almost to the point of announcing a “Phase 3” or final stage in the pandemic’s spread. According to Lopez Gatell, Phase 1 took place when all cases were imported from other countries. Phase 2 involved community spread at an accelerated rate, however, officials could still track infections and sources.
One of the concerns expressed during the news conference points to the high number of deaths in a younger cohort (25-50 age range) compared to other countries. Lopez Gatell says this is still due to pre-existing conditions like a 14 percent rate of diabetes, a 75 percent of the population being overweight, and more than 30 percent suffering from hypertension.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.
Tony Aranda from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.