Mexico Declares State of Calamity

By Andrea Ano First Posted: Apr 03, 2020 08:53 PM EDT

(Photo : Reuters)
Caution tape blocks off a pedestrian street after Mexico's government declared a health emergency on Monday and issued stricter rules to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Mexico City

The federal government will continue to deal with criticism because of its reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic though it declared a health crisis on Monday that stipulated stricter steps to consist of the spread of the ailment.

Some experts think that Mexico is acting way too late and that the country is not carrying out enough COVID-19 tests to avoid a widespread outbreak like that found across the northern border in the United States.

As of today, there are 1,378 cases of COVID-19 that have been confirmed and a total of 11,008 assessments that have been completed. Many experts think that the true number of cases is substantially greater - hidden by the shortage of tests that have taken place.

READ: March 31: Mexico Confirmed 1,094 COVID-19 Cases With 28 Deaths

Mexico should conduct wider testing

The amount of assessments carried out to a particular date is very low compared to several other places including New York with over 205,000 assessments as of Tuesday.

Janine Ramsey, an infectious disease specialist with Mexico's National Institute of Public Health, told the Associated Press that prevalent COVID-19 testing should have taken place in March and February. She commented that politics might have been a component in the shortage of tests to date.

Dr. Joseph Eisenberg, the seat of the Epidemiology Department at the Faculty of Michigan's School of Public Health, also stated that Mexico must have begun testing much more widely earlier.

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The government's actions against the virus

The federal government has defended their response to the virus, saying that on-the-ground health surveillance offers a lot of the info it must determine exactly how the coronavirus epidemic is evolving. Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Tuesday that he expects the epidemic curve to begin flattening soon as a result of the government's social distancing recommendations.

Authorities have ramped up the "stay of theirs at home" email in the past few days, with President López Obrador urging Mexicans to stay away from going out almost as practical in a video message posted to social networking on Friday.

The next day, López-Gatell delivered his most emphatic exhortation for people to stay at home and the government on Monday declared a health emergency that stipulated the suspension of non-essential activities until April 30. Additionally, it prohibited events seeking to collect even more than fifty individuals, among other actions.

But the actions announced on Monday are actually "too late," according to Dr. Miguel Betancourt, president of the Mexican Society of Public Health, who stated that they ought to have been announced 2 days earlier when the pandemic curve started to steepen.

Nevertheless, with no federal authorities threatening to demand penalties on individuals that flout the directive to remain at home, as well as with large numbers of Mexicans not in a place to follow it since they're not able to help themselves in case they do not continue working, it remains to be noticed just how effective the emergency declaration steps will be.