Q24N – Mexico City will reduce social distancing measures as of next week in the face of a continuous decline in the spread of covid-19, the local government reported this Friday.
“Derived from the continuous improvements that we have seen (…) we have already fulfilled the conditions” to gradually reduce the restrictions, said Eduardo Clark, director of the Digital Agency for Public Innovation, at a press conference.
Hospitalizations went from 1,681 on April 30 to 1,404 this Friday, a decrease of 277 people, representing 16.5% occupancy in the last week, Clark added.
In mid-January, the Mexican capital had a peak of 90% occupied hospital beds, the high point of the pandemic.
With this panorama, Mexico City lowered one more level, to yellow, in the “epidemiological traffic light” that marks the restrictions that the authorities must implement, according to the behavior of the new coronavirus.
The highest level of alert is red, which stipulates suspension of non-essential activities, followed by the colors orange, yellow and green. The latter allows the return to face-to-face classes and the normalization of almost all activities.
By going from orange to yellow starting next week, banks in Mexico City will no longer have restricted hours. The capacity allowed in shops will be 40%, as in cinemas.
The occupancy of venues for outdoor entertainment events, such as stadiums, may be 25%, while bars, billiards, casinos and amusement parks will extend their hours until 10 pm.
With 130 million inhabitants, Mexico had, as of Thursday had 2.36 million confirmed cases. The county has, as of May 8, 218,657 deaths associated with covid-19, the fourth worst-hit country in deaths after the United States, Brazil, and India.
