Mexico surpasses 1 million Covid cases
Mexico surpassed one million Covid-19 cases on Saturday, registering 5,860 new infections over the prior day in a country with among the world's highest death tolls from the virus, the government said.
A total of just one 1,003,253 persons have finally tested positive for the virus in Mexico, said health ministry official Ricardo Cortes.
The death toll meanwhile reached 98,259, including 635 registered in the last day, he added.
Mexico has the world's fourth-highest death toll from the virus behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to an AFP tally predicated on official figures.
It also gets the 11th highest number of infections.
Cases have already been spiking in several areas of the united states.
"We probably still need to start to see the worst," Alejandro Macias, former national commissioner against the AH1N1 influenza pandemic in Mexico City in '09 2009, told AFP.
The federal government earlier declared a lockdown on March 23, although essential economic activities remained open, without sanctions for non-compliance.
The mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, announced on Friday the closure of bars for 15 days and earlier closing times for restaurants, cinemas and gyms as a result of spike in infections and hospitalizations during the last week.
Sheinbaum also said that daily tests will be increased to 10,000.
The administrative centre has seen a rise in infections since mid-October and remains the epicenter of the pandemic in Mexico. - AFP
