The Valley of Mexico turns to an orange traffic light after two months at the worst moment of the pandemic

The metropolitan area of ​​Mexico City, which includes the State of Mexico, will go to an orange traffic light next Monday after two months with maximum restrictions.

The capital government announced at a press conference this Friday that the number of hospital admissions has dropped by 68%, which will allow the return of open-air theater performances, individual classes in gyms and swimming pools and the opening of temples.

In the new guidelines communicated this morning there is also the extension of the restaurant hours until 10 pm, but this remains restricted exclusively to the terraces.

For now, cinemas, museums and clubs will not be open.

The director of the Digital Agency, Eduardo Clark, has assured that occupied hospital beds are falling at a rate of 150 daily.

"The red traffic light has been more successful than the one decreed in May to stop the virus," he declared.

As of Monday, the restaurants will be able to open until 10 pm, an extension of one hour more from the announcement of the previous week.

The service allowed will be exclusively outdoors, but tables will be allowed up to five people.

The theater will return to the scene with a healthy distance, masks among the audience and performances also outdoors.

Gyms that operate in closed spaces may provide service with a single client and a coach, without group classes, as long as they maintain a distance of four meters between clients.

In pools you can also swim in individual classes and with two lanes between users.

In turn, temples and churches will be able to open without celebrating masses or ceremonies inside.

Ash Wednesday will be commemorated in open-air atriums, with only one person per family.

Parishioners must wear face masks.

The businesses mentioned above are linked to the essential activities allowed such as supermarkets and pharmacies, to shops and stores, which will continue to operate with 20% of their capacity, to shopping centers and drive-ins.

They continue without authorization to open casinos, cinemas, museums, sporting events or mass shows, bowling alleys, offices, educational centers and massage centers and spas.

Since last January 21, the metropolitan area of ​​the Valley of Mexico has been decreasing in hospitalizations.

After reaching a maximum of 10,071 occupied beds in mid-January, occupancy has dropped by 14% in the last week.

In total, there are 7,873 hospitalized.

The head of the Digital Agency, José Merino, has acknowledged that these figures confirm the accelerated drop in hospital occupancy, "the fastest we have seen", with 68% fewer beds occupied.

Demand for the number of tests to detect covid in kiosks and health centers has decreased, as reported by Clark.

"We want to call on the importance of continuing to do tests, even if we have a slight suspicion," he said.

The rate of positivity registered has been the lowest since the beginning of the pandemic, with 1,695 positive people among the tests carried out in the last day, just a positivity of 12%.

This figure represents only a third of the almost 5,000 that the authorities identified four weeks ago.

"The epidemiological scenario predicts that the advance of the virus will continue to fall, with a reproductive rate of 0.8," the capital official reported.

Tubed hospitalizations have also decreased considerably and free beds in hospitals have been increasing.

“Throughout December and January we had 100 people hospitalized per day, so we went to a red light.

As a result of this decision, on January 21 we began to decrease ”, explained the director of the Digital Agency, who added that on average the occupation of 150 beds per day decreases.

"The red traffic light has been more successful than the one decreed in May to stop the virus," he declared.

The local government has reported that the vaccination strategy is advancing, with 186,245 people vaccinated, 68,525 in their second dose.

However, they have called not to lower our guard.

“The recommendation continues to be not to have meetings with people we do not live with, to wear masks and to do everything possible outdoors.

When we are in a closed place use face masks and minimize the time of permanence ”, they have indicated.

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