Mexico Puts Capital on Red Covid Alert, City Insists on Orange

(Bloomberg) --

Mexico’s national Health Ministry raised Mexico City to its highest Covid-19 alert level, or “red stoplight,” due to rising infections, though city officials said it was remaining at the lower “orange level.”

The ministry showed the capital and six other states at the red alert level as Covid has been spreading throughout those areas. But city communication officials told reporters in a chat group that the city is remaining at the lower orange alert.

Mexico has restricted some economic activities based on a stoplight system that ranks threat levels as green, yellow, orange and red, with green being the lowest alert and red the highest.

The heightened alert levels come as Mexico has seen cases rising at near their highest levels. The country has reported daily increases of more than 20,000 cases for the past three straight days and general Covid hospital bed occupancy is at 51% nationwide, according to the Health Ministry.

The capital’s health minister, Oliva Lopez, said Friday that the delta variant is now responsible for 90% of cases in Mexico City.

Despite the surge in cases, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell told governors Thursday that the proportion of those needing to be hospitalized is below previous waves.

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