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GENEVA (Reuters) – The head of the World Health Organization said on Monday that Mexico was in “bad shape” over the coronavirus as infections and deaths increase, while the Mexican government predicts the pandemic is likely to continue to worsen until January.
Mexico’s coronavirus death toll, the fourth highest in the world, stands at nearly 106,000. Confirmed cases exceed 1.1 million, though public health experts say the actual figure is likely much higher .
“The number of increasing cases and deaths in Mexico is very worrying,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing in Geneva. Citing the increase in the number of weekly deaths from 2,000 the week of October 12 to around 4,000 on November 23, “this shows that Mexico is in bad shape,” he said.
At least seven of Mexico City’s 54 public hospitals treating patients with COVID-19 are fully occupied in coronavirus beds with ventilators, according to a report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
OCHA said 14 other health centers were at risk of being stretched, with COVID-19 bed occupancy rates exceeding 70%. He noted that the Mexican Ministry of Health reported that 63% of all general hospital beds for COVID-19 patients in the capital are occupied.
“When both indicators, deaths and cases, increase, I think it’s a very serious problem and we would like to ask Mexico to be very serious,” Tedros said.
Speaking later at an evening press conference, Mexico’s Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said he had “great respect” for Tedros and did not have to answer him.
Separately, Lopez-Gatell said the pandemic would most likely continue to worsen in Mexico until January.
Since Mexico began lifting its toughest lockdown restrictions in June, it has hesitated to reimpose blanket measures, as a large portion of the melee population depends on the ability to get out every day and to do business.
However, some states have increased restrictions to contain the pandemic in recent weeks.
(Reporting by Emma Farge in Geneva and Raul Cortes and Dave Graham in Mexico; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Leslie Adler)
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