Cristian Carlos. Peninsula 360 Press.
"We really wish we weren't living this situation," said Mexico City's head of government, Claudia Sheinbaum. "The most important objective, at this moment, is prevention: to reduce contagion, to reduce hospitalizations".
At a press conference, the head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, said that, even with "all the efforts of the citizens and the government," contagion from SARS-CoV-2 - the new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease - has increased, as well as hospitalizations and deaths in the country's capital.
Also present at the press conference were Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell and the Governor of the State of Mexico, Alfredo del Mazo Maza.
"Even as we expand hospital capacity, we need to decrease the contagion curve. We are asking all citizens to make an effort. So far, the Mexican capital has a hospital occupancy rate that is close to 75 percent.
"Mexico City goes to a red light," Sheinbaum decreed. "For this reason, together with the State of Mexico, from tomorrow, we have to reduce the activity -economic-, reduce mobility. The maximum alert in the country's capital will be in effect until January 10.
During the course of this Friday, December 18, it is expected that, in the state gazettes, both in Mexico City and in the State of Mexico, it will be published which are considered essential activities, but he advanced that the Vice-Minister of Health of Mexico, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, has informed that, within these essential economic activities are the same ones that were contemplated last June:
- Sale of unprepared and prepared food - only in the form of delivery without consumption on site
- The energy sector.
- The transport sector
- The manufacturing sector
- The health sector
- Funeral services
- Financial Services
- Construction services
- Telecommunications services.
- Sale and manufacture of medicines.
"2020 and 2021 will be very special years for the history of humanity; therefore, it is not the time for parties," said Lopez-Gatell. "Let's wait, let's be patient, there will be an opportunity to celebrate," he added regarding the beginning of the December festivities in the country.
Finally, Claudia Sheinbaum, head of the Mexico City government, thanked and called on its population to "make an extraordinary effort" so that, during the period at the red light, anyone who falls ill from COVID-19 "can always have a bed in a hospital". He urged the population to stay at home, to respect physical distance - known in the country as "healthy distance" - to wash their hands frequently, one person per family to shop, and reiterated, on two occasions, to refrain from any kind of external gathering.
Sheinbaum also said that if any person from the capital has been in contact with a person who is sick with COVID-19, they should isolate themselves in quarantine and request medical support to be assigned to a hospital.
