Mexico Nearly Surpasses Iran for Coronavirus Cases

Despite official assurances that the novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is contained locally, Mexico continues to see a dramatic rise in new cases–now ranking eleventh globally.

The latest figures released by Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health show 196,847 confirmed cases and 24,324 fatalities since the pandemic arrived. The health official also revealed the nation had only conducted 515,658 tests total.

Al 24 de junio de 2020 hay 196,847 casos confirmados, 24,036 confirmados activos y 62,475 sospechosos por #COVID19. Se han registrado 256,336 negativos, 24,324 defunciones confirmadas, 1,894 defunciones sospechosas y fueron estudiadas 515,658 personas. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/KcRwXT6tg7

— Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez (@HLGatell) June 25, 2020

The figures show a dramatic spike of 5,437 news cases on Wednesday, which pushed Mexico up in rankings just behind Iran. Mexico ranks 149 for tests per one million in population.

Mexico is in the process of reopening many businesses. However, Lopez Gatell was previously criticized for being late in implementing the restrictions. Most recently, a Harvard epidemiologist took to social media recently to underscore the scale of the problem.

Holy moly- I’m crying for MEXICO . The over 50% is the *POSITIVITY* percentage!!! More than half of all who get a test are positive. Even in the worst periods of NYC or Madrid or Lombardy… they never approached 50% positivity!! Mexico may be undergoing unprecedented #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/1p7DaaHCVz

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) June 21, 2020

Days before Mexico ordered the initial shutdowns in late March, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador kept telling the public to take their families out to eat and continue socializing.

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.