Ministry of Education to evaluate damages/Rescue of Mine Workers

Ministry of Education will evaluate damages caused by COVID-19. President López Obrador said that the new minister of education, Leticia Ramírez, will have to carry out an evaluation of the damages caused by the pandemic on Mexico´s education sector. Furthermore, the president assured that Ramírez will strengthen the education sector and will establish a good relationship between teachers and student´s families.

Leticia Ramírez was previously Head of Citizen Services from 2000 to 2012. She was also an advisor to the Ministry of the Environment from 2012 to 2018. In addition, she has been a leader of Section 9 of both the National Union of Education Workers and the Coordinator for the National Education Workers.

Rescue of mine workers. National Coordinator of Civil Protection Laura Velázquez Alzúa reported that the entity will meet with two foreign companies, one from Germany and the other from the US, to seek their opinions on the rescue of the trapped mine workers. Moreover, she said this meeting is one of the requests the relatives of the victims have petitioned.

On August 3, 15 miners were working at a depth of 60m in the coal mine located in Sabinas, Coahuila, when the walls of the tunnels collapsed, flooding the three pits. For a week, authorities have been draining the water to enter the mine and rescue the miners, whose health status remains unknown. At the time of the accident, five of the 15 mine workers managed to escape. Currently, the relatives of the victims have complained about the lack of transparency and progress of the authorities. The authorities explained that they have not been able to rescue the miners because the water levels in the wells rose significantly this weekend. Consequently, the government strategy has been changed to permanent pumping of the pits, drilling 20 wells and injecting cement to seal galleries in the coal plate.

COVID-19. Deputy Minister of Health Hugo López-Gatell celebrated the fifth consecutive week where COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have decreased. Moreover, he reported that hospital occupancy of general beds stands at 8 percent while beds with ventilators stand at 3 percent.

The Ministry of Health communicated in its last technical report that the total number of COVID-19 infections total 6,929,003 while the death toll is 328,736. In the last 24 hours, the country has registered 1,367 infections and 4 deaths.

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