Hugo López-Gatell without a mask on the streets of the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City on March 10. TWITTER: @ ADRIANAG03
While Mexico added more than 192,000 deaths from coronavirus, the person in charge of the Government to combat the pandemic, infected with covid-19, took a walk through one of the fashionable neighborhoods of the capital this Wednesday, according to images released on social networks that the official has not denied so far.
The cameras captured a moment in which Hugo López-Gatell appears without a mask in one of the busiest parks in the city, in the Condesa.
And everything could have been one more failure, which would add to the list of officials who have skipped health recommendations - including the president - at some time, if it were not for the indications he had given himself.
And the case has escalated to greater controversy because that same afternoon he gave a press conference in which he warned that he was still contagious.
"After 19 days of illness, I am completely recovered, I have no symptoms whatsoever, I am in good condition, with strength and with courage," López-Gatell's message started this Wednesday, resuming his virtual presence at o'clock after weeks of illness. daily press conferences on the advance of the virus.
And he continued: “What it is is that I took the test again today [this Wednesday], and I test positive again, this means that I have a viral load high enough to be contagious.
Therefore, although I have a medical discharge, I do not have an epidemiological discharge ”.
The bomb of the images of the walk that had begun to circulate, then exploded in the networks.
Why, if he had the ability to infect, did he go out for a walk through one of the busiest areas of the capital and why did he do it at some point without a mask?
These are the questions that this Thursday have hammered the social networks, columns and articles in the local press.
The undersecretary has tried to defend his position: “There is no medical or epidemiological contraindication to go for a walk.
My contagious capacity is minimal.
Of course I am not going to be in a closed office or interacting with other people, "he told journalist Joaquín López Dóriga in the middle of the controversy on Wednesday night in an interview.
The indication to stay home if symptoms of the disease appear is wallpapered in every corner of the capital, signed by the Ministry of Health.
In the case of being aware that one is positive for covid-19, the recommendation has been very specific for a year: quarantine.
So the explanation of the head of the strategy against the pandemic has not convinced those who have seen the walk as a provocation.
"The probability that I infect someone through my double mask while walking in the park six meters away from other people, is virtually zero," López-Gatell added to the journalist.
The message that these images send to the public is risky for a country that supports not only the number of more than 192,000 deaths, but hospital saturation, the inability of thousands of Mexicans to access decent health care, the other thousands who They have gone into debt to get oxygen, medicine and pay for a relative's hospital bed for weeks.
The images of López-Gatell walking with covid-19 point directly to the electorate with little access to health services to which the ruling party, Morena, appeals.
It is not the first time that the undersecretary has been criticized for skipping his own health recommendations.
At Christmas he was seen in a restaurant with a friend on the beaches of Oaxaca, when he had repeatedly asked the population to take shelter at home, which caused one of the most difficult moments he had had to face so far.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador did not withdraw his support and praised his ability to work during these long months.
They were running some of the most terrible weeks of the pandemic, amid celebrations and posadas.
The man at the forefront of the fight against the coronavirus in Mexico communicated on February 20 on Twitter that he had contracted the disease and that his symptoms were mild.
So, he isolated himself at home and stopped appearing in the daily conferences he offers to communicate the advance of the virus in the country.
Ten days later, the newspaper
La Jornada
reported that the undersecretary was in the hospital.
After several days of speculation and denials from official sources about his state of health, the Ministry of Health confirmed that the official was admitted and was "very well" and "in very good spirits."
"They did not hospitalize me for being delicate, but to receive treatment, which is intravenous and easier to handle than at home," the undersecretary told that newspaper and assured that he was not having trouble breathing.
López-Gatell left the Centro Citibanamex, a field hospital set up to help with the crisis in Mexico City, on March 1.
José Luis Alomía, director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Health, reported then that the official had received supplemental oxygen in the early phase of his illness and had followed a complementary intravenous anti-inflammatory treatment with frequency, dose and schedule control.
López-Gatell has insisted these days that he will not release more information about his treatment because it should be considered a “private” matter and not “of public interest”.
Almost at the same time as the undersecretary, the head of Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, was infected.
The secretary began a 20-day isolation and has resumed work this Wednesday after testing negative in a PCR test.
The press conferences of the Undersecretary of Health became at the beginning of the pandemic an obligatory point of reference to understand the Government's strategy in attending to the health situation, but over the months his role added to controversies and polarization.
Among the most prominent controversies was his repeated rejection of the use of the mask.
While the images of the walk through the Countess ran through social networks and WhatsApp messages, the pandemic and its figures continued to alert the country that the end is not yet near.
López-Gatell himself announced it that afternoon: 192,488 confirmed deaths as of this Wednesday, 46,221 active cases.
Meanwhile, the country lags behind in the challenge of vaccinating 117 million people for free: so far 3.4 million doses have been applied.
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