Mexico continues to break tragic records. The country has registered a new daily maximum of deaths from covid-19 this Tuesday with 1,584 in the last 24 hours. Only a week ago it had reached the peak with 1,314 dead. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the country has accumulated 142,832 deaths, which makes Mexico the fourth country in the world with the most deaths from the disease. The number of infections also continues to rise, with 18,894 in the last day, and there are already more than 1.6 million cases in total. The fatality is at 7%, according to official figures.
In a conference in which they have tried to maintain the calm tone, the Ministry of Health has again shown alarm figures: the positivity rate is at 44%, there are more than 100,000 active cases (that is, they contracted the disease in the last 14 days) and hospital occupancy in six States is above 80%. Meanwhile, the vaccine comes in a dropper.
Faced with the critical moment that the pandemic is going through in the country – Mexico has been 12 days with more than 10,000 daily cases – the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced today that it is going to use Russian and Chinese vaccines to cover the shortage of vaccines from Pfizer. The American pharmaceutical company will send only half of the batches planned for this month for expansion works at its plant in Belgium.
In addition, the Mexican Administration has ensured that this unforeseen event is added to the United Nations request that countries that have already been able to access the doses postpone deliveries so that states with fewer resources can also receive vaccines. “The consequences can be dire if we do not get the vaccine to arrive more or less synchronously between the countries because the epidemic will continue to be active,” said the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell.
The Government has detailed this Tuesday that it expects the arrival of almost 21.4 million doses between January and March, to immunize more than 14 million inhabitants during that period with four different prototypes. Two-thirds will come from Russia and China, while the rest will be completed when Pfizer production is regularized and distribution of the Oxford and AstraZeneca vaccine begins. “The most difficult thing is to have the vaccine in February and March, and we believe that by April and May we will have enough,” the president said today.
López-Gatell has updated the vaccination figures in the afternoon: 498,122 doses applied, all of them to medical personnel, and 9,609 of these workers have already received the full treatment, that is, two doses. One of the main concerns, after the delay of the Pfizer vaccine, is to finish immunizing those who have already received the first dose. The pharmaceutical company recommends 21 days of space between both injections, the Mexican Government is looking for evidence that allows them to defer applications up to 42 days.
Hospital occupancy of 60%
Right now, the country has an average of 60% of general beds occupied and 53% of those with ventilation. There are eight states with more than 70% hospital occupancy, among which are Mexico City with 89% or Guanajuato already also with 87%; They are closely followed by the State of Mexico (85%), Hidalgo (84%) and Puebla (82%). There are 10 other entities that remain between 69% and 50%, and 14 below this half of the occupation.
Last Friday, the Ministry of Health presented the map with the epidemiological traffic light that illustrated the seriousness of the situation: only two States are in yellow, medium risk, and nothing more than Campeche in green. This second wave is hitting the country even harder. The images of sanitary collapse, which were practically avoided in the first months of the pandemic, come from different parts of the Republic. The situation is critical especially in the area of the Valley of Mexico, where the search for oxygen of patients seeking treatment in their beds has intensified due to the saturation of medical centers.
