Covid-19 in Mexico causes over 100,000 deaths and more than 1 million infections

By James Blears

Mexico`s Deputy Health Minister and pandemic Spokesman Hugo Lopez-Gatell originally claimed that he wasn`t convinced that corona virus was any more lethal than ordinary influenza and its effects would diminish by October.  He also insisted that mass testing for it would be a waste of time and money.  Back in March, the Mexican Government announced that the pandemic was NOT an emergency situation. The  stark situation which today faces Mexico,  suggests that a very different scenario, has developed.  The John Hopkins University in the United States says more than one hundred thousand Mexican people have died from the virus and more than a million are infected with it.  But...due to virtually no testing, the numbers could be much higher on both counts. Perhaps three times as bad...and deadly. The Mexican Government`s fateful decision to re-open the badly dented economy, in May , has been severely criticized.

Officially Mexico`s death rate is 9.8 people per one hundred, which is the highest amongst the twenty nations most affected by the pandemic. Only the United States, Brazil and India, have  a higher death rate from the pandemic.

Lopez-Gatell has belated changed his tune. He NOW says: "There is no precident in this country for an acute infectious disease, affecting the lives of so many."  With tragedy comes altered wisdom. And all the indications are,  that even worse will follow.