Mexico registers a rebound in coronavirus cases in the country’s tourist destinations

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Health authorities report an increase in covid-19 infections in the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Sinaloa and Veracruz

Less than 15 days after more than half of the country declared a green light due to the low risk of contagion from covid-19, the alarms have been turned on again in the main tourist areas of Mexico. The Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, announced this Tuesday that there was an 8% increase in cases of covid-19in the most recent epidemiological week. López-Gatell attributed this national increase in infections to the increase in patients in the states of Quintana Roo, Yucatán, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Sinaloa and Veracruz. “It is Quintana Roo and Yucatán where there is a significant increase in cases. We have called for the reduction of certain activities where people congregate, ”said the official. In addition to the Yucatan peninsula, at the other end of the country, in Baja California, the rebound in estimated cases of coronavirus in one week was 36%, according to official figures. Since the pandemic began, Mexico has registered more than 2.4 million cases and 230,185 deaths.

Although López-Gatell assured that Mexico was experiencing a phase of “stability” of the pandemic, he also called for people who have any symptoms associated with covid-19 to go to health centers. “At this time we do not have problems of saturation of health services, we have a very large space in the covid units,” he said.

The alert call of the Undersecretary of Health has focused on the States that is home to the main tourist sites in the country and where the estimated cases of coronavirus have rebounded in a week more than double digits. The State of Quintana Roo, the tourist jewel of the Mexican Caribbean, was the first entity where an escalation of cases was registered at the beginning of the month. While the country loudly announced the continuous decline in infections, the reopening of schools, and the reactivation of cinemas, restaurants, and football stadiums, Quintana Roo reported at that time an average of 140 cases per day.

Far from decreasing, the estimated infected by the virus in that entity went from 1,042 to 1,277 cases in a week, representing an increase of 22%. In Yucatán, the increase during the same period was 20%, going from 1,198 to 1,445 patients and in the State of Baja California Sur, which is home to Los Cabos, a Mexican tourist center, on seven days it went from 754 to 1,032 estimated positive cases, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Andreu Comas, an academic at the Autonomous University of San Luis Potosí (UASLP), considers it worrying that in less than two weeks Mexico will go from having two to four regions with an increase in cases, areas also with high mobility. “This increase has to do with tourism because something that should be noted is that Mexico does not ask for the PCR test to enter our country, there are hotels that do request them, but we are having a significant increase in the Baja California peninsula and in the Yucatan peninsula for tourism. If you are not doing the guidelines to avoid an outbreak, then you are going to have a regrowth, ”says Comas.

The increase in cases, however, is not only attributable to the increase in the arrival of tourists. The mobility of people has also been on the rise in the main cities of the country due to greater confidence due to the declaration of a green traffic light in almost the entire territory, due to the decrease in infected and due to the progress in the application of vaccines. As of this Monday, 26.4 million people have been vaccinated, which means that 30% of the country’s population has at least one dose and this Tuesday Mexico received 1.3 million Johnson & # 39; s vaccines from the United States Government Johnson to immunize people living on the northern border.

In the case of Mexico City, which declared the green traffic light for the first time on June 4, the number of estimated cases of coronavirus during the first week of the month was 3,708, an increase of 3.5% compared to those infected. of the previous week. The country’s capital accumulates more than 668,000 coronavirus patients and 44,085 deaths since the pandemic began, according to official data.

Comas emphasizes that in the States and in the capital the number of tests and confinement measures should be increased both for confirmed patients and for people suspected of carrying the disease. “As long as there is no mandatory regulation of the use of the mask, as long as there is no low-occupancy public transport, crowds will generate and if you have crowds with little ventilation, you will have cases,” he concludes.

Although the escalation of covid-19 cases continues to rise sharply in some entities, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, assured that daily conferences on covid are no longer necessary because “the pandemic is already decreasing” and congratulated López-Gatell’s work during the health crisis. “I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Gatell who for more than a year was reporting every afternoon, he became our teacher. I consider him a professional of the first order, an example of a public servant ”, declared the president during his usual press conference.

Source: elpais.com

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