Hospital capacity reaching its limit in Mexico

Mexico’s public health system was in a precarious state before coronavirus. A change by Lopez Obrador’s administration in how it buys medicines and from whom had caused shortages for months.

As the new virus spread, the percentage of confirmed cases needing hospitalization has grown to 37% from around 10% when the country started providing the data in early March. Macias said the high rate could be a reflection of the limitations of the sentinel model, where tests are only administered to those with severe symptoms.

As of Thursday,April 23rd, a total of 4,420 patients had required hospitalization and 530 were in intensive care, according to health ministry data.

Some public hospitals in Mexico City have reached capacity. Four out of 52 have no beds available, the city said. Seven others have limited capacity.

The same information is not yet available for the rest of the country but will be soon, deputy health minister Lopez Gatell said on Tuesday.

Source: bloomberg.com