Coronavirus claims second victim; health officials confirm there are 203 cases

Mexico News Day ^ | Saturday, March 21, 2020

[nickcarraway]

Thepandemic could peak in April or May, said one official; another predicted June

Health officials confirmed that a patient who died in Durango on Thursday tested positive for Covid-19, making him the second person in Mexico to die of the disease.

The man was 74 years old and suffered from hypertension.

“Yesterday we mentioned a suspicious death in the state of Durango. The result was confirmed as [Covid-19],” Health Ministry epidemiologist José Luis Alomía told a press conference on Friday.

He said that at that moment there were 203 confirmed cases and 606 suspected cases of Covid-19 in the country. Of the hospitalized patients, 2% are in critical condition.

Contact tracing on the patients led to the identification of 66 people with symptoms, of whom 27 tested positive for the coronavirus. They have all been isolated and are undergoing treatment.

Interactive coronavirus map indicates confirmed cases, state by state.

The total of confirmed cases is up from 164 as of Thursday evening.

As for how long Mexico can expect to be affected by the coronavirus, officials from the Health Ministry gave conflicting forecasts on Friday.

Alomía told the press conference that cases would peak in April or May. He said that the country is currently 22 days into Phase 1 of the virus’s cycle, which could last four weeks in total.

Phase 2, in which the highest number of cases is expected, will last about three weeks, he said, but added that it all depends on how people behave during the crisis. If the public does not practice effective methods of social distancing, the phases could last longer.

However, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell told a reporter from Grupo Fórmula on Friday that Mexico will see the most cases in June.

“We have to prepare ourselves for a long epidemic,” he said, but added that the government has a positive outlook on the situation.

“We’re very hopeful that we will slow down transmission and in the moment that the [virus] spreads, which is going to happen, it won’t be so intense,” he said.

López-Gatell predicted that a decline in the number of cases could be seen in July or August, but the pandemic could continue until October.

The head of the national commission of high-specialty hospitals, Gustavo Reyes Terán, urged citizens with symptoms related to Covid-19 to remain at home and contact authorities in order to conduct the proper testing.

He said this remain-at-home procedure is important to keeping space available in high-specialty hospitals for more serious cases and ensuring that their emergency rooms do not become saturated with patients.

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum urged citizens to stay at home in a video posted to Twitter on Thursday, saying that such social distancing will help mitigate the spread of the virus.

[wastoute]

It will be very interesting to see what happens in Mexico.

[wastoute]

Some of these third world countries may n to even notice. They don’t have a healthcare system to over run.

[Zhang Fei]

Hospital beds by country
Rank	Country/territory	Continent	Hospital beds per 1000 people					Change from previous year, average		Occupancy (%)[13]	ICU-CCB beds /100,000 inhabitants	Ventilators
			2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	Actual	Proportional (%)
31	Turkey	Europe	2.65	2.68	2.68	2.75	2.81	0.04	1.45	68.0	46[18][19]	Unknown
32	United States	North America	2.89	2.83	2.80	2.77		−0.04	−1.42	64.0	34.7[20]	177,000[21]
4	Germany	Europe	8.28	8.23	8.13	8.06	8.00	−0.07	−0.86	79.8	29.2[16]	25,000[17]
16	Luxembourg	Europe	5.17	5.05	4.93	4.81	4.66	−0.13	−2.63	70.7	24.8[16]	Unknown
5	Austria	Europe	7.64	7.58	7.54	7.42	7.37	−0.07	−0.90	73.8	21.8[16]	Unknown
12	Belgium	Europe	5.93	5.85	5.83	5.76	5.76	−0.04	−0.73	81.8	15.9[16]	Unknown
9	Lithuania	Europe	7.28	7.22	6.97	6.69	6.56	−0.18	−2.65	73.2	15.5[16]	Unknown
15	Estonia	Europe	5.01	5.01	4.96	4.76	4.69	−0.08	−1.68	70.4	14.6[16]	Unknown
6	Hungary	Europe	7.04	6.98	6.99	7.00	7.02	−0.01	−0.07	65.5	13.8[16]	Unknown
36	Canada	North America	2.71	2.67	2.61	2.58	2.52	−0.05	−1.84	91.6	13.5[22]	Unknown
26	Italy	Europe	3.31	3.21	3.20	3.17	3.18	−0.03	−1.01	78.9	12.5[16]	Unknown
7	Czech Republic	Europe	6.7	6.68	6.67	6.66	6.63	−0.02	−0.26	70.1	11.6[16]	Unknown
10	France	Europe	6.28	6.20	6.13	6.06	5.98	−0.08	−1.23	75.6	11.6[16]	Unknown
17	Switzerland	Europe	4.68	4.58	4.58	4.55	4.53	−0.04	−0.82	82.0	11.0[16]	Unknown
2	South Korea	Asia	10.92	11.59	11.61	11.98	12.27	0.34	2.85		10.6[14]	Unknown
13	Latvia	Europe	5.8	5.66	5.69	5.72	5.57	−0.06	−1.03	71.1	9.7[16]	Unknown
29	Spain	Europe	2.96	2.97	2.98	2.97	2.97	0.00	0.08	75.3	9.7[16]	Unknown
11	Slovakia	Europe	5.8	5.79	5.75	5.78	5.82	0.01	0.08	67.8	9.2[16]	Unknown
27	Iceland	Europe	3.22	3.16	3.12	3.13	3.06	−0.04	−1.29		9.1[16]	Unknown
3	Russia	Europe	9.07	8.81	8.35	8.16	8.05	−0.26	−3.04		8.3[15]	Unknown
22	Norway	Europe	3.86	3.84	3.76	3.68	3.60	−0.07	−1.76	80.7	8[16]	Unknown
1	Japan	Asia	13.3	13.21	13.17	13.11	13.05	−0.06	−0.48	75.5	7.3[14]	Unknown
14	Hong Kong	Asia	5.4	5.4	5.4			0.00	0.00		7.1[14]	Unknown
8	Poland	Europe	6.61	6.63	6.63	6.64	6.62	0.00	0.04		6.9[16]	Unknown
34	Denmark	Europe	3.07	2.69	2.53	2.60	2.61	−0.12	−4.34		6.7[16]	Unknown
35	United Kingdom (more)	Europe	2.76	2.73	2.61	2.57	2.54	−0.05	−2.11	84.3	6.6[16]	Unknown
30	Ireland	Europe	2.56	2.57	2.92	2.97	2.96	0.10	3.43	94.9	6.5[16]	Unknown
18	Slovenia	Europe	4.55	4.54	4.51	4.49	4.50	−0.01	−0.28	69.5	6.4[16]	Unknown
24	Netherlands	Europe	4.18		3.52	3.44	3.32	0.00	0.00	65.4	6.4[16]	Unknown
25	Finland	Europe	4.87	4.53	4.35	3.97	3.28	−0.40	−10.56		6.1[16]	Unknown
20	Greece	Europe	4.24	4.24	4.25	4.20	4.21	−0.01	−0.18	61.6	6[16]	Unknown
37	Sweden	Europe	2.59	2.54	2.44	2.34	2.22	−0.09	−3.94		5.8[16]	Unknown
23	Portugal	Europe	3.39	3.32	3.37	3.39	3.39	0.00	−0.01	66.8	4.2[16]	Unknown
19	China	Asia	3.31	3.57	3.82	4.05	4.34	0.26	6.55		3.6[14]	Unknown
40	Mexico	North America	1.44	1.43	1.39	1.39	1.38	−0.02	−1.08	74.0	1.2[23][24]	Unknown
21	Australia	Oceania	3.74	3.79	3.82	3.84		0.03	0.88			Unknown
28	Israel	Asia	3.09	3.08	3.03	2.99	3.02	−0.02	−0.58	93.3		Unknown
33	New Zealand	Oceania	2.78	2.75	2.71	2.73	2.71	−0.02	−0.64			Unknown
38	Chile	South America	2.16	2.11	2.14	2.12	2.11	−0.01	−0.60	79.1		Unknown
39	Colombia	South America	1.54	1.59	1.61	1.68	1.70	0.04	2.43			Unknown

[Londo Molari]

If it does get bad, we need to expect a run on the border. I hope the Border Patrol and Homeland Security have plans for that contingency.

[SunkenCiv]

[singing] there was something in the air that night, the coughs were light, Durango...