Mexico to Let Auto Plants to Restart as Covid-19 Toll Rises

(Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s general health council will add auto manufacturing, construction and mining to its list of essential activities, allowing those sectors to resume operations, according to a tweet by the federal body.

That decision was among four agreements the government council approved to progressively lift Covid-19 containment measures. Mexico suspended non-essential activities including auto and auto parts manufacturing when it declared a national health emergency due to the coronavirus on March 30.

Automakers have begun forming plans to cautiously reopen in North America amid the pandemic, and those strategies involve supply chains in Mexico. The country’s Economy Ministry said in late April it was working with the U.S. and Canada on a plan to restart the auto industry, but until then the sector must comply with the suspension of activities mandated by the government.

The decision comes as Mexico’s Health Ministry reported 353 new Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday, a near 10% daily increase, bringing the total to 3,926. Total cases rose 5% from the previous day to 38,324, though Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell has said the actual number of cases in the country may be as many as eight times higher.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said the spread of the disease in the country is peaking. He plans to announce a plan to reactivate the economy at his morning press conference on Wednesday. That’s also when more details about the council’s measures will be released, as the new rules don’t include dates for when they’ll take effect.

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