Corona statistics in Mexico: Suddenly 120,000 deaths
I amIn Mexico, the number of deaths from Corona rose by 120,000 over the weekend. The number is not a typo. Suddenly, Mexico ranks second in global Corona statistics, and now it is even ahead of Brazil and only after the United States. How did this happen?
The unusual news was preceded by doubts from the experts. Since the start of the pandemic, they had suspected that the actual death toll in Mexico may have been much higher than officially announced due to a lack of testing. It must be proven that the professionals are right as such Ministry of Health It had to be recognized now. According to this, at least 322,000 Mexicans have died from Corona infection – thus more than 60 percent of the more than 201,000 cases confirmed so far.
The president is under fire
The reason for the correction was the analysis of excess death certificates and deaths from the past few months, which the Ministry of Health has now provided. As early as January, the National Institute of Statistics recorded an overall increase of 184,000 deaths over the previous year in the first eight months of last year. Of those, 108,000 were traced back to Corona infection, and the government only reached 64,000 confirmed cases during the same period – nothing could be right.
The government of Mexico had previously relied on data from hospitals, but the Statistical Institute used death certificates as a source. According to experts, the shortage of intensive care beds in many states may have resulted in large numbers of people dying at home – and thus not yet included in the Ministry of Health statistics. As the analysis by the Ministry of Health now shows, about 70 percent of the excess deaths last year can be attributed to Corona deaths.
Mexico’s left-wing nationalist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been criticized for his handling of the crisis since the start of the pandemic. The opposition accused Lopez Obrador, who usually appears in public without a mask and contracted the virus himself in January, of underestimating the severity of the epidemic. He is also responsible for the slow vaccination campaign. In fact, only about five percent of the population is vaccinated.
Mexico recently turned to the United States for help. They have announced that they will deliver 2.5 million doses of Astra-Zeneca vaccine. The vaccine has not yet been released in the United States, but it is present in Mexico. After all, the number of new infections has decreased since the end of January as a result of strict restrictions. But last week, epidemiologist Hugo Lopez Gatel, who is in charge of fighting the epidemic, warned of a new wave after the Easter holiday.
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