López Gatell announced that vaccination for educational personnel in Mexico will begin this Tuesday. | Photo: @HLGatell

Mexico City, April 20 (RHC)-- The Mexican Ministry of Health launched on Monday a call to several states of the Latin American country to implement measures to prevent the arrival of a new wave of COVID-19 infections.

The Mexican Undersecretary of Health, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, stated in a press conference that, after 11 weeks of decline, the rate of infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes the Covid-19 disease, has increased.

He pointed out that there are 10 states where cases of the respiratory disease have increased again: Mexico City (the country's capital), Quintana Roo, Baja California Sur, Tlaxcala, Chihuahua, Colima, Durango, State of Mexico, Morelos and Nayarit.  "We call on the inhabitants (of these states) to implement health measures to reverse the upward trend of the epidemic curves in their states," the official said on his Twitter account.  

The general director of Epidemiology, José Luis Alomía, for his part, pointed out that infections rose by an average of 4.0 percent in the whole Mexican territory.  "It is time to redouble efforts and continue implementing preventive measures," Alomía remarked.

As of April 19, Mexico had 1,833,132 people recovered from COVID-19 and 212,466 confirmed deaths, according to official statistics.   Nationwide, 85 percent of general hospital beds are available and 15 percent are occupied.  In ventilator beds, 82 percent are available and 18 percent occupied.

Lopez Gatell also announced that vaccination for educational personnel, estimated at 3,000,000 people, will begin this Tuesday, with the intention of returning to classes in the middle of this year.