PAHO Warns Mexico of the Dangers of Accelerating its Reopening

So far, Mexico has reported more than 93,400 cases of covid-19.

While the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, predicted this Tuesday, June 2, that the economic recovery of his country would begin in July, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) an agency belonging to the World Health Organization (WHO) warned him not to rush and act cautiously before the danger of new coronavirus infections.

“There is no magic bullet, but if the (Covid-19) transmission is still growing, that is an indication that you should not start opening economic activity immediately because it may mean that transmission is going to accelerate even more,” said Jarbas Barbosa, PAHO’s deputy director, referring to Mexico.

In the weekly videoconference that the organization carries out reports on the state of the pandemic in the region, Barbosa added that the levels of coronavirus cases are different depending on the area in Mexico, however, in regions of high incidence it is important to do “a reconsideration”.

Barbosa stressed that Mexico needs to have tests for all suspected cases of Covid-19.

“Mexico is making that effort and we hope that in the next few days it will have much more capacity,” he said. “This is a very important nation for transmission control.”

For his part, López Obrador spoke of the economic recovery of his country on his second day of a working tour of southeast Mexico.

“The most difficult quarter will be from April to June 2020 and the recovery, although slow, will start as early as July,” he said at a press conference in Mérida, Yucatán. “From July onwards we are going to recover . . . that is my forecast and I am working towards that,” he added.

So far, Mexico has reported more than 93,400 cases of Covid-19 and more than 10,100 deaths. In Mexico City, hospital beds are 80% occupied.

The president left the capital for the first time since the end of March to inaugurate four sections of the “Mayan Train” that will travel 1,525 kilometers to connect the main tourist enclaves of the Yucatan peninsula with the rest of the country. López Obrador hopes that this infrastructure project will generate 80,000 jobs this year.

The paralysis of non-essential economic activities to mitigate the transmission of the new coronavirus caused the loss of thousands of jobs. According to the National Institute of Geography and Statistics, 12 million people stopped working compared to the same month last year.

Featured image: MEXICO CITY, March 23, 2020 (Xinhua) – Mexican Undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, speaks during a press conference on the disease caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19).

Source URL: Ultimas Noticias

Translated by JRE/EF