Colima is the only state at extreme risk according to the Health Secretariat

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The risk of coronavirus infection will be yellow light “medium” in 10 states as of Monday, the Health Ministry announced Friday, while Colima will be the only state at the red light “maximum” risk level.

Health Promotion chief Ricardo Cortés presented a new coronavirus “stoplight” risk map that showed that Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, Chihuahua and Sonora will start next week as yellow light states.

Photo: Reuters

The only state that is yellow on the “stoplight” map currently in effect is Campeche, which switched to that color on August 17. Cortés said the 10 yellow light states now look forward to reaching the green light “low” risk level.

The nine states that switched from orange to yellow on Monday will be able to ease coronavirus restrictions with the federal government’s blessing.

Each stoplight color is accompanied by recommended restrictions to slow the spread of the virus but some states have chosen to follow their own guidelines rather than those drawn up by federal authorities.

The new “traffic light” map showed that 21 states will start next week as orange light “high” risk states.

They are Aguascalientes, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Coahuila, Durango,  Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Mexico City, México state, Morelos, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Puebla, Querétaro, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Yucatán and Zacatecas.

The risk level has been downgraded from red to orange in five of those states – Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Hidalgo, Nayarit and Zacatecas.

Cortés urged residents of orange light states to continue acting with caution in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus and thus allow the risk infection level to be reduced.

The infection risk level in Colima, now the sole red light state, remains at maximum because case numbers, hospital admissions and Covid-19 deaths are still trending upwards, the health official said. The small Pacific coast state has recorded a total of 3,542 confirmed coronavirus cases and 414 Covid-19 deaths.

Cortés explained that the new “stoplight” map was formulated for the first time using 10 different indicators, rather than four, to assess the risk level in each state.

Ricardo Cortés of the Ministry of Health presents the new Covid-19 risk map at Friday's press briefing.
Ricardo Cortés of the Ministry of Health presents the new Covid-19 risk map at Friday’s press briefing.

The 10 indicators are: the Covid-19 effective reproduction rate (how many people each infected person infects); estimated case numbers per 100,000 inhabitants; the weekly positivity rate (the percentage of Covid-19 tests that come back positive); total case numbers; the number of coronavirus patients per 100,000 inhabitants; hospital occupancy rates for general care beds; occupancy rates for beds with ventilators; hospital admission trends; Covid-19 mortality rate (deaths per 100,000 inhabitants); and Covid-19 death trends (whether the number of deaths per week is increasing or decreasing).

Source: MND

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