Coronavirus: Mexico City closes all activities …

Mexico City and the neighboring state of Mexico will close all non-essential activities from this Saturday to January 10 to stop the advance of the covid-19 epidemic, which has reached its peak in the capital since the outbreak of the disease.

Unprepared or prepared catering services, take out or home, the energy, transportation, manufacturing, healthcare, funeral, construction, finance and telecommunications sectors will remain open.

The manufacture and sale of medicines, some repair and spare parts shops, government taxes, security, public works, water and operating services will also be operational.

Mexico, the main focus of the pandemic, accumulates 277,733 cases of covid and 19,583 deaths, while country adds 1,289,298 infections and 116,487 deaths. The occupancy rate of hospitals in the capital is 80% and 75% in the neighboring state of Mexico, while beds with ventilators in the capital represent 69% of their occupancy.

The authorities of the capital and the president of the country, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, have been asking the population for two weeks to restrict mobility, a call which “has helped” to reduce travel but “is not enough”.

The rebound of the capital and its metropolis occurred “from the first week of October”, in a region difficult to control due to “such a large population (of more than 23 million people) and great mobility ”.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the capital’s epidemiological fire was turning red, indicating maximum danger.

“We must necessarily reduce the contagion curve for hospitalizations to decrease, and this is why these measures are taken,” he said. Sheinbaum stressed that the goal is to have 10,000 hospital beds in the metropolitan region of the Valley of Mexico, but that the “most important” at the moment is prevention.

Faced with a “worrying” rise in the rate of infections, it was agreed to suspend all non-essential activities and thus reduce mobility and the number of cases, said Del Mazo, who called the decision “difficult” because it affects the family economy.