Hospitalizations stabilize in Mexico City while deaths from covid-19 remain

Vendors and passersby crowd on a street in the Historic Center of Mexico City yesterday, a few days after celebrating Candelaria Day at a red light.Rebecca Blackwell / AP

Mexico City has managed to accumulate eight consecutive days without an increase in hospitalizations, a trend that had been repeating since the beginning of October when the second wave of the pandemic began to hit the capital.

On the contrary, the red traffic light has failed to stop deaths from coronavirus, which have reached 320 in the last 24 hours, a figure that has not managed to drop below 190 in the last week.

The head of Government, Claudia Sheinbaum, has maintained this Friday that the plan for the reopening of economic activities "without risking" continues in motion, and that non-essential businesses will be able to operate outdoors as of next Monday.

Shopping centers will have to wait until February 8 for now, since they are closed spaces with a higher risk of contagion.

The total of hospitalized in the Metropolitan Area of ​​the Valley of Mexico has reached a total of 9,851 admitted during the last week, of which 2,349 need a ventilator.

These data confirm a downward trend in hospital care in the capital that has been repeating for eight days, according to the head of the local government's Digital Agenda, Eduardo Clark.

"We are seeing reductions in infections that are reflected in the SMS care system, in hospital admissions and in telephone emergency care services compared to December," said the person in charge, who recalls that the figures have a delay of 10 days and that the peak of infections after the Christmas holidays is being left behind.

Clark says that hospital saturation has dropped to 87%, after dangerously close to 90% in the first weeks of January, after increasing the number of beds by 35% and the incorporation of 890 health workers.

In addition, the Topilejo General Hospital in Tlalpan has been inaugurated, which will begin operating on Monday with 81 beds, 66 of them for patients with coronavirus.

Even so, hospital admissions do not drop below 4,399 people, according to the latest report.

Just 65 people less than the peak reached at the beginning of the month.

"This is good news and reflects the ability of the red traffic light to stabilize a growing trend that had been growing for eight weeks," he added.

Good evening, I share the daily report on the situation of the City in front of the # Covid19https: //t.co/ex30hYGuo9#ProtégeteYProtegeALosDemás pic.twitter.com/1YHrHWSQ7l

- Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) January 29, 2021

The deceased, on the contrary, remain.

The latest report published by the local government shows that 320 people have died in the last 24 hours, 144 less than the day before but 125 more than on January 25.

Mexico City remains one of the States with the highest excess of deaths from coronavirus with 82,449 deaths.

The second cause of death in the country has come to be derived from the virus, according to the report of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).

The head of government has also started a solidarity campaign for citizens to increase the availability of oxygen tanks in the city.

The streets of the capital, with long lines in front of oxygen providers, are the scene of the lack of this gas, necessary to treat covid patients at home who have not been able to get a place in a hospital or who do not trust the public health care.

“I call on those who have an oxygen tank at home that they no longer use, to return it so that it can be used by another person who is ill with covid-19.

Let us be in solidarity, contact the supplier company to return it ”, he has communicated on his social networks.

The program for the economic reactivation of the capital, which has been showing a red traffic light and the order to keep the blinds down since December 18, will take a further step this Monday when non-essential businesses can resume their activity.

In the open air, with a safety distance and only being able to open from Tuesday to Saturday, the stores will be able to serve customers again after more than a month of stoppage.

Shopping centers will have to wait one more week to open due to the risk posed by crowds in closed spaces.

Sheinbaum has not detailed an estimated date to return to the orange light.

However, he hopes that if the downward trends continue as predicted by his epidemiological model, the Ministry of Health will issue new instructions.

"We have had a slight decrease in hospitalizations, infections and calls to 911. It has been for just eight days, but we want to continue decreasing," he has sentenced.