Health

Mexico ends Covid-19 emergency

Mexico City, May 9 (EFE).- Mexico’s official national emergency for Covid-19 came to an end Tuesday after three years that have seen the virus claim nearly 334,000 lives in the Aztec nation, a death toll exceeded only by the United States, Brazil, India, and Russia.

The official who has managed Mexico’s response to the pandemic, Deputy Health Secretary Hugo Lopez-Gatell, pointed to last Friday’s announcement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that it no longer deemed Covid-19 a public health emergency of international concern.

The situation in Mexico meets the criteria established by the WHO in reaching its decision to discontinue the global emergency, Lopez-Gatell said.

Mexico, with roughly 7.59 million confirmed cases, did not impose lockdowns or curfews to contain the spread of Covid-19, and authorities also declined to place restrictions on international travel.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who was recently sidelined for several days by his third bout with the virus, has been accused of seeking to minimize the pandemic.

But Lopez-Gatell insisted Tuesday that 95 percent of Mexicans have protection against Covid-19.

“Regarding immunity, Mexico also meets the conditions that the WHO has indicated,” he said. “Practically 95 percent of us have antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, be it because we were infected and suffered Covid, be it because we were vaccinated.”

The deputy health secretary said that the government will continue to monitor Covid-19, to include coronavirus in its universal vaccination program, and to recommend that people take precautions against infection. EFE ppc/dr

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