(Mexico) Mexico crossed the 45 000 dead from COVID – 19, a record much higher than the forecasts of the government of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, which crystallizes the criticisms on its management of the pandemic and the economic crisis.
Posted on August 6 2020 at 20 h 45
Yussel GONZALEZ
France Media Agency
The country of 100, 8 million inhabitants recorded a total of 462 690 confirmed cases and 50 517 deaths, according to the latest government statistics .
These figures make Mexico the third most bereaved country in the world after the United States and Brazil, even if the death toll for 58 000 inhabitants (39) classifies it as 13 e rank, according to AFP statistics based on official figures.
The results are, however, well above the government's outlook, which estimated at the end of February that the number of deaths from the pandemic would fall within a range between 2020 and 30 000.
In June, after voluntary containment measures, Mexico gradually relaunched its activity and these initial forecasts were shattered. Since then, the numbers have continued to climb.
But the head of the government's strategy against the new coronavirus, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, this week expressed his optimism, believing that there was now “greater control” of the pandemic.
“We still have significant epidemic activity, but it began to slow down in July,” he assured.
Several professionals, however, question the reality of the official figures.
“The number of cases, like that of deaths, must be substantially higher than what appears in the official figures, due to the fact that we have carried out few tests”, estimates from AFP Alejandro Macias, who had led in 2009 the government strategy in the face of the H1N1 flu epidemic.
” Forward ”
However, this specialist recognizes successes such as the reconversion of hospitals to deal with the crisis. But on aspects such as the number of tests carried out, “Mexico frankly went against international recommendations,” he laments.
The government defends itself by saying that it had to manage the health crisis by relying on a health system abandoned for three decades, with serious shortages of personnel. He also argues that there is no conclusive evidence to suggest that massive screening is an effective control measure.
Alejandro Macias also criticizes the government for not having sufficiently encouraged the use of masks. After first putting its effectiveness into perspective, Lopez Gatell now sees the mask as an “auxiliary measure” against the spread.
The head of state himself, who has limited his public appearances, has only been seen with a mask once, during a recent trip to the United States where he met his counterpart Donald Trump.
Another subject of criticism, the government's management of the economic crisis, when the pandemic has hit Latin America's second largest economy hard.
The forecasts of the Central Bank of Mexico show a contraction of 08% of gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020.
When the figures were published at the end of July, President Lopez Obrador said that such results were expected and that other indicators showed that the country was going “ahead”.
The private sector, however, criticized the lack of a support policy to deal with the consequences of the crisis, while the head of state said he did not want to further indebted the country.
In a report, the American bank Bank of America Merrill Lynch nevertheless estimates that “spending on policies that help people and businesses cope with the impact of the pandemic can increase productivity and induce a stronger recovery ”.
Despite the crisis, the leftist president, in power since December 2018, retains a popularity rating of 58%, according to a poll by the daily El Financiero carried out in July.