No COVID Increase After Return to School/Amnesty Law

National Lottery on Sept. 15. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador called on Mexicans to participate in the National Lottery on Sept. 15 and stressed that the proceeds will go to reward athletes who participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. "Go and buy a ticket for the lottery. Everything we collect will be given to our athletes who represented us very well at the Olympic and Paralympic Games."

The Mexican authorities announced that 22 prizes will be raffled, including houses, apartments, ranches, land, boxes in the Azteca Stadium, among other properties that have been confiscated for their links to organized crime. Each raffle ticket costs MX$250 (US$12.58).

COVID-19 contagions decrease throughout Mexico. Deputy Minister of Health Hugo López-Gatell announced that all the states of the republic have reported a decrease in COVID-19 infections. He stressed that the main reason is that more people are being vaccinated. "Vaccination is the most important element, as it provides up to 100 percent protection against the possibility of serious cases."

Mexico ranks fourth among countries with the most deaths related to COVID-19, behind the US, Brazil and India. The country has accumulated 267,969 deaths and 3.5 million infections since the pandemic began in February 2020. According to the Ministry of Health, so far 68 percent of the adult population has been vaccinated.

COVID-19 infections in children have not increased exponentially. López-Gatell said that there has been no rebound in COVID-19 cases among minors who have returned to face-to-face classes, since less than 10 percent of infections are related to their age range. “There has not been a demonstrable increase in COVID-19 cases among minors. Less than 10 percent of the cases that are reported are children and more than 95 percent of them are generally mild cases. However, we will continue to monitor to address any issues that may appear."

So far, 135,000 schools have reopened and 12.6 million students and 1.2 million teachers have returned to classrooms. The Ministry of Public Education announced that COVID-19 cases have been detected in only 88 schools, representing just 0.6 percent of all schools that reopened. Of the 88 schools, only 39 have decided to close temporarily.

Special vaccination ends in the border municipalities. López Obrador announced that the population of the border municipalities will today receive a second vaccine dose, which will allow the US-Mexico border to be fully reopened. López Obrador did not provide further details on when or how the border will be reopened but he said that he is already working on it with his counterpart in the US. “Today, we are finally going to finish vaccinating all the inhabitants of the border municipalities. This already allows us to fully open the border as soon as possible. "

To reactivate the commercial relationship with the US, López Obrador decided to vaccinate the population of 45 border municipalities in Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas as soon as possible. Authorities reported that 3.8 million vaccines have been administered in these municipalities since the start of the special vaccination campaign on June 17.

600 prisoners to be released. López Obrador announced that more than 600 prisoners will be released and that more than 4,000 prisoner files are being analyzed so that they can benefit from the Amnesty Law. “Reviews have been done to see who meets the requirements to be pre-released. It is the beginning of a process that we will be doing every month,” said Adán Augusto, Minister of the Interior.

On April 23, 2020, the Amnesty Law promoted by López Obrador entered into force. The law seeks to free people who were imprisoned after suffering injustices, such as prisoners who have been tortured, those who have not been sentenced for more than two years, people over 70 years old and prisoners over 60 years old with chronic or terminal illnesses.

Click HERE for full transcript in Spanish