MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico on Thursday surpassed India in confirmed COVID-19 deaths, which according to official Reuters data gives the Latin American country the third highest toll.
The Mexican Ministry of Health reported 18,670 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 1,506 additional deaths, bringing the total number of cases to 1,825,519 and deaths to 155,145.
The latest death toll in India, a country with more than ten times the population of Mexico’s 126 million people, was 153,847, according to a Reuters report.
Adjusted for per capita deaths, Mexico’s toll is lower than that of several other countries, including the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Italy, the United States, Peru and Spain, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University. .
Mexico’s balloon mortality rate underscores the fight to curb the pandemic, which is exacerbated despite the government’s restrictions on movement and trade.
In Mexico City, hospitals are almost capacity and a shortage of oxygen tanks has made it difficult to treat patients.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who announced Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, has improved and is in a good mood, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell told a regular news conference on Thursday.
“The president is virtually asymptomatic and is also very active,” Lopez-Gatell said.
Lopez Obrador, 67, has been isolated since his announcement of his diagnosis, although he is still working, officials said.
(Edited by Cassandra Garrison; edited by Dave Graham, Grant McCool and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
Originally published