MEXICO CITY (Times Media Mexico) – In its morning conference, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador released the federal government’s official plan against the Covid-19 coronavirus.
“We were the first in the world to address this public health risk every day,” Lopez Obrador said. We were the first in the world to address this public health risk every day,” Lopez Obrador has just said. He reiterated: “our adversaries always seek to harm us, even if that means harming the people” and that “we have faced fake news, the spread of false news, which has not made a dent, since there is communication, messages are coming and going”.(SIC)
Dr. Hugo López Gatell, the man “in charge of leading this plan,” as presented by López Obrador, recognized that there is already community infection in Mexico: “the time has come for collective, massive strategies.” He said. “The moment is now,” he assured: “we want to formally declare the beginning of phase 2: it is to draw the horizon for the next 30, 40 days.
Thanks to the measures taken, we will be able to turn the corner,” Lopez Gatell said. However, he warned that it will be a long epidemic, in which cases will continue to be reported.
The measures announced by Lopez Gatell are
1. Continue to maintain a healthy distance.
2. Protect and care for older adults and groups most at risk.
3. Suspend classes from March 23rd to April 19th.
4. Suspend during the same dates, events, and meetings of 100 people or more. [Already underway]
5. Suspend work activities that involve the mobilization or gathering of people in all sectors of society. [This point was not very clear: what it covers, what the exceptions are…]
6. Continue, intensify individual and public hygiene measures.
“We have a solid, extensive capacity in the health sector”, reiterated López Gatell. However, he announced that a recruitment campaign is underway.
“Extreme measures are part of public health, but we are far from applying measures that violate social guarantees,” he said and warned that the coronavirus epidemic will be more intense in urban areas and in tourist poles, “where it entered,” such as Cancún. (He said there was no need to close the airports… remember?)
In his final speech, López Obrador said that Mexico has a unique advantage, and that is family: “The family is the most important public health institution. He said this is evident, “mainly in the daughters who take care of the fathers”; men, he contrasted, “are more detached”. He called for special care of the elderly. Also, he asked that we take care of our health: “There is nothing that can be cured with tequila or mezcal”; we have to “behave well”.
Obrador reported that he has received expressions of support from the business community. “For example, Carlos Slim called me promising that he is not going to fire any employee”; and he invited all the employers to do the same. “I will sign a decree myself so that the elderly, pregnant women, people with kidney conditions who work in the public service will not go to work,” (SIC)
AMLO assured that Mexico has economic strengths because “we have not allowed corruption”. Then, he said, “has allowed us to have savings; what used to go down the drain of corruption, we have in the box: we have extra funds to use of around 400 billion pesos”.
“We took the decision to lower the price of gasoline,” AMLO said again, without mentioning the arguments that contradict him concerning this reduction. “I ask the gas stations, those who have the concessions, not to abuse: gasoline cannot cost more than 17 pesos per liter”.
“We have resources to continue the construction of the airport, roads, the plan of the Isthmus, the refinery of Dos Bocas. We have resources to finance the Mayan Train because all this will allow the creation of jobs, which will be needed. A stage of economic recovery will come”. In this regard, AMLO also said: “I tell you that in due time we will grant loans without interest or at very low rates to a million small businesses: inns, taquerías, workshops… I work 16 hours a day, because the other 8 I sleep, I am sleeping well; I am at a hundred” (SIC), he said, again. “I’m sure we’ll get through this: the people of Mexico are a lot of pieces, they’re prepared to face adversity.”
He concluded with three cheers for Mexico. No questions were allowed to the reporters… even though there were – and still are – several questions on the air.
Let’s leave this sentence for posterity: “Daughters take care of fathers because men are more detached. That is why we have millions of nurses”.
The Yucatan Times
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