A new wave of Covid-19 infections is spreading throughout Mexico, driven mainly by a large number of people in high-density tourist areas. The daily bulletin released on January 2 by the Secretariat of Health reported a total of 46,045 active cases, which is to say people that began to display symptoms as of December 20, 2021.
Sunday’s figure is double what was reported on December 28, when the official estimate stood at just under 23,000 new cases. Mexico, which saw out 2021 exceeding a total of 10,000 daily infections, rang in the New Year in the midst of a global emergency generated by the omicron variant, which is more contagious than other strains with uncertainty remaining as to its potential seriousness among unvaccinated and medically vulnerable people.
The state of Baja California Sur, where tourist destinations such as Los Cabos attract tens of thousands of tourists, many of them from overseas and particularly from the USA, has registered 4,185 new infections, a significant jump over the data from just a few days earlier. Other hotspots are emerging in the Caribbean regions.
The state of Quintana Roo, the most populous city of which is Cancún, was already reporting cases of omicron a week ago, according to the tracking of patients from Paraguay. Mexico City, as per the data released by the Secretariat of Health, is also among the worst-affected areas. The capital is followed by the states of Baja California, San Luis Potosí, Aguascalientes, Yucatán, Chihuahua, Coahuila and Zacatecas.
The presence of the omicron strain in tourist areas such as Los Cabos and Cancún has not prevented the government from also allowing cruise ships to dock in Mexico’s ports despite carrying passengers who were infected with coronavirus.
Some Mexican politicians like Claudia Sheinbaum, the head of government of Mexico City, did adopt some additional measures ahead of the New Year’s celebrations. In the capital, for example, a planned concert by the musical group Los Ángeles Azules was called off, although the advance of the latest wave of the virus has led various government agencies to reconsider their recommendations.
Source: El Pais
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