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Mexico City prepares to increase hospital beds amid the boom in covid-19 cases

2020-12-03T13:29:15.792Z


Hospital occupancy reaches 55% of its capacity despite the efforts of the local government to reach 20,000 daily tests and the registration of population data in closed spaces


Relatives of patients infected with covid-19 wait for information outside the La Raza Hospital located north of Mexico City.JOSE PAZOS FABIAN / EFE

The hospital occupation in Mexico City grows without rest.

Occupied beds in hospitals represent 55% of the total, with 3,839 currently admitted to the health system.

The figure is dangerously close to that reached in the last weeks of June, when the pandemic began to subside after reaching its highest peak.

On June 25 there were 3,845 hospitalized registered, only six more than in the last report of the local government.

The Head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, indicated this Wednesday at a press conference that she does not rule out announcing more measures next Friday, but for now, she is working with the Ministry of Health and other health authorities to increase hospital capacity and identify the places where they produce contagions.

Sheinbaum refuses to impose the use of mandatory face masks, in the same line as President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, since he considers it "authoritarian" and hopes to increase the tests to detect the virus to 20,000 during the week.

Meanwhile, the capital has added 3,308 new cases and 105 deaths in the last 24 hours.

Just two months ago, on October 4, the capital reached its lowest peak in hospital admissions.

During this period, the boom in cases has surpassed hospitals and there are fewer and fewer centers available to treat COVID-19 due to saturation.

If this trend continues, it would not take long to reach the peak of May 21 when there were 4,553 hospitalized and three out of four beds were occupied.

The efforts of the local government are focused on increasing the number of tests and aspire to go from 15,000 to 20,000 before Friday.

In turn, the implementation of a registry by means of a QR code in closed spaces to be able to track infections has returned 75 positive cases and contact to 6,000 people who could have been infected in its first week of operation.

Even so, it has not been enough, and Sheinbaum has warned that at the end of the week he could announce new restrictive measures for the capital.

The Head of Government has reported that hospital capacity "is recovering" and that there is a comprehensive program underway with the health authorities to improve the capacity of hospitals and identify what measures will be most effective in places where they occur more contagions.

He has recalled that the best precautions are those of a healthy distance, wearing face masks and not going to crowded, closed places with little ventilation.

However, it is firm in not making the use of masks mandatory.

“It is not our conviction, authoritarianism comes out of these parties and exhausts.

We are not authoritarian, ”he repeated.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-12-03

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