Mexico Reports Record Rise in Virus Cases as Economy Reopens

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico reported a record daily rise of 6,288 Covid-19 cases as the government has moved forward with reopening the country’s economy. Total cases reached 191,410, the Health Ministry said Tuesday night.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has focused on the economy rather than enacting lockdowns and has continued to travel the country, even as the number of new daily cases has exceeded 5,000 four times in the last week.

Deaths have also increased steadily, with a daily rise of 793 bringing the total to 23,377. The country, which currently has the seventh-deadliest outbreak, is on track to overtake Spain at 28,325 and France at 29,723, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The European countries haven’t seen daily increases in their death tolls as high as Mexico.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell has said at several evening news conferences that the rising numbers don’t reflect information only from the previous 24 hours because it takes time for the government to compile the data. But experts have raised questions about the scope of the outbreak in the country considering the lack of testing and unclear tracking.

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