Coronavirus Fatalities in Mexico Jump 19 Percent in Single Day

Medical workers wait to guide people arriving to get tested for COVID-19 at private labora
AP File Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Ildefonso Ortiz and Brandon Darby

Despite the many assurances given by Mexican health officials, the nation saw a 19 percent rise in fatalities in one day from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The spike comes just one day after health officials confirmed a ten percent rise in fatalities the prior day.

Health officials revealed the startling information during a nightly streamed news conference where they listed the current number of fatalities at 650 coronavirus deaths since the pandemic started.

The number of coronavirus deaths is higher by 104 cases from the prior day when officials confirmed 546 cases, which at the time showed a ten percent increase from the prior day to that, Breitbart Texas reported. During the new conference, health officials revealed that Mexico has a total of 7,497 confirmed coronavirus cases. Mexican health officials have only conducted a total of 49,167 COVID-19 tests since the start of the pandemic in Mexico.

Health officials are testing 12,369 suspicious cases that will be confirmed or disproven. The current number of 7,497 confirmed cases is considerably smaller than the more than 55,000 estimated cases that Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez Gatell revealed last week. According to Lopez Gatell, Mexican epidemiologists are working off a Sentinel model — similar to an opinion poll where they multiply the number of confirmed cases by a specific factor to estimate the true scope of the pandemic.

In recent days, Lopez Gatell and the federal government have been harshly criticized by various state governors who claim that the numbers kept by health officials are misleading. State politicians have also criticized the Mexican government for a lack of action and for failing to provide needed protective equipment to doctors and nurses nationwide.

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

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