New Traffic Light: 15 States in Red, 17 in Orange

Health Promotion head Ricardo Cortés reported that 15 states will be in red and 17 in orange on the updated epidemiological traffic light, effective from June 22 to 29, after Hidalgo became the only state upgraded from red to orange this week. During today’s briefing, Cortés explained that the traffic light assesses four indicators: trend of COVID-19 syndrome, trend of hospitalized patients, positivity to the new virus and hospital occupation. If only one of the four is on red, the traffic light will be also on red.

For this new map, the 17 states in orange are: Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Campeche, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Colima, Durango, Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán, Nuevo León, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, Yucatán, and Zacatecas.

Three weeks after the start of the “new normal”, COVID-19 infection rates remained high. Accumulated cases reached 170,485, with 5,030 more confirmations since yesterday. The death toll rose to 20,394 after further 647 cases were added in the last 24 hours. Active cases, or with symptoms in the last 14 days, hit 23,653.

As of Friday, June 19

5,030     new cases (from yesterday)

170,485 confirmed cases nationwide

62,245   under investigation

20,394   deaths

Impact on markets (19.30 hrs)

US Dollar              MX$22.64            (-0.36%)

BMV IPC               38,404.63             (2.05%)

Dow Jones          25,871.46             (-0.80%)

Mexico City stays red

Mexico City will continue on red of the epidemiological traffic light, which means that new economic activities expected to resume next week will have to wait another seven days at least, Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said. In her virtual briefing she stepped back from the prior projection of lowering to orange from June 22, and reopening more manufacturing operations, services and small neighborhood business. The new date expected for changing the traffic light will be June 29.

Herrera rules out Afore major change

Minister of Finance (SHCP) Arturo Herrera denied that neither the agency nor President Andrés Manuel López Obrador supports the proposal that Retirement Fund (Afores) be managed by one single government fund, just like it was when they started. The official said a proposal to modify the system will be presented soon and that the main problem in Afores is that many people do not manage to add enough working weeks and qualify to get their pensions.

SRE resume passport issuance

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE) announced this Friday that it will partially resume the passport issuance service starting Monday, June 22. In addition, the legalization of public documents and attention to cases of consular protection for Mexicans abroad will also partially reopen from next Monday, in 20 of the 45 SRE’s delegations. In a statement, the agency reported that every decision is aligned to the COVID-19 contingency plan.

WHO warns on daily record

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating into a dangerous new phase, in which the Americas suffering the worst, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned. A new daily global record in infections was registered with over 150,000 confirmed cases in one day, almost half of them in the Americas. “The world is in a dangerous new phase,” Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.

53 more ventilators arrive

This morning the sixth flight with medical supplies from the US landed at Toluca International Airport, as part of a trade agreement between Mexico and the US governments. Cargo included 53 ventilators manufactured by Hamilton Medical.