MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The coronavirus tsar in Mexico has been hospitalized for the past five days for treatment with COVID-19, but is recovering well, a health official said Sunday as the country celebrates the one-year anniversary of its first confirmed infection is.
Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the face of Mexico’s response to the pandemic, drew criticism from him for underestimating the need for masks and a strategy of limited testing.
According to Reuters, Mexico recorded 185,715 deaths due to the coronavirus, which is the fourth highest death rate in the world.
Lopez-Gatell was admitted to ‘early hospitalization’ last Wednesday after his medical team determined he needed supplemental oxygen, said Ruy Lopez, head of the National Center for Preventive Programs and Disease Control (Cenaprece).
“He is progressing well and we hope he can be released from the hospital unit tomorrow,” Lopez told a news conference.
The epidemiologist announced on February 20 that he had tested positive for COVID-19, after experiencing mild symptoms.
A number of high-ranking officials in Mexico contracted the virus, including President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who avoided the face masks.
Mexico registered another 458 coronavirus deaths on Sunday and another 2,810 confirmed infections, for a total of 2,086,938 cases. The government says the actual number of infected people is likely to be significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Sharay Angulo; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Diane Craft and Raju Gopalakrishnan)