Dozens of people wait outside a Mexico City hospital in November.Nayeli Cruz
Mexico City remains "at the limit" of the maximum alert for COVID-19 infections despite the increase in hospitalizations.
The Head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, has reported this Friday that in the last seven days there were 205 new hospitalizations in the capital, that is, that the occupation of beds is 52%.
The city, where 17,259 people have died from covid-19 and 196,028 have been infected with the virus, went to the orange traffic light at the end of June and has remained at that level since then.
Two weeks ago, the capital government warned of a "change in trend" in the number of hospitalizations and announced new restrictions, which will be maintained in the next week.
"[The measures] are only a week old," Sheinbaum warned at a press conference.
"Instead of isolating the entire population, we are focusing our batteries on isolating people who are positive," the head of government reiterated.
“It is not that with the red light we behave in one way and with the orange light in another.
We have to take care of ourselves while the pandemic is there, we all have to be very responsible.
And when the number of hospitalizations is growing, even more ”, he warned.
Sheinbaum, from the Movement for National Regeneration (Morena) - the same party as the Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador -, has warned that "to reduce" infections the Government plans to double the number of tests.
The authorities set up 26 new covid-19 test posts in public places in the capital to expand the coverage of control of the pandemic.
Currently, almost 8,000 tests are carried out on average per day and Sheinbaum has assured that they hope to reach 20,000 daily, especially with the implementation of three rapid antigens.
In addition, non-essential activities will continue to close at 7:00 p.m., as determined by the Government seven days ago, and commerce on public roads in the Historic Center will do so at 5:00 p.m.
The case tracking system through QR codes, which started operating this week, will also continue.
Currently, some enclosed spaces, such as cinemas, theaters or gymnasiums, must place a code at the entrance to facilitate the identification of positive cases.
Citizens are not obliged to scan it, but for businesses it is mandatory to have it.
So far, the authorities have identified 404 positive cases with the new system and 16,782 people have been alerted that they could have been in contact with infected.
According to Sheinbaum, the strategy will also start to be implemented in supermarkets, supermarkets and pharmacies.
In addition to Mexico City, other states in the country have registered an increase in cases.
Chihuahua became the first state to return to the red light since the reopening at the end of October due to the sharp increase in infections.
Durango followed a week later.
This same week the country registered for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic more than 10,000 daily infections - on October 5, the authorities counted 28,115 new infections, although at that time they argued that it was a new methodology that included lagged infections.
And the country has already exceeded 100,000 positive cases.