Mexico Passes Grim New Milestone With 60,000 Covid-19 Deaths

(Bloomberg) --

Mexico, with the world’s third-highest fatalities from Covid-19, crossed the 60,000 milestone for deaths after losing 644 patients on Saturday.

The country trails just the U.S. and Brazil in total deaths and has the world’s seventh-highest number of cases at 556,216 as of Saturday.

Mexico is struggling to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus, which has brought the economy crashing and continues to spread despite government efforts to clamp down. In a webcast Friday, the World Health Organization said Mexico’s testing rate means the pandemic is “clearly under-recognized” in the Latin American nation.

Mexico tests about 3 in 100,000 people, according to the WHO. Michael Ryan from the WHO’s Health Emergencies Program said in the webcast that the virus disproportionately hurts people living in poverty in the country, who are more than twice as likely to die from Covid-19 than those in wealthier areas.

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