Civil Protection has just announced new restrictive measures for the Capital: limited hours for the sale of alcohol and access to beaches, in addition to the return of restrictions to enter the supermarket
After meeting the authorities of the Municipal Civil Protection Council in La Paz, it was determined that a reduction in the hours for the sale of alcohol will be implemented, in addition to reducing the capacity within the beaches and restaurants; in supermarkets and stores only one member per family will be accepted, warned Mayor Rubén Muñoz Álvarez.
“The entrance to supermarkets and department stores is reduced to only one member per family; alcohol sales hours in stores and supermarkets will be reduced until 6:00 pm ”, he said.
Regarding the sale of prepared food, the authority in the municipality of La Paz specified that the hours will be reduced until 10 at night, respecting a capacity of 30%, as established by the health alert system for Coronavirus. 

 

“For restaurants, which will have a capacity of 30% today, the food sale hours will be until 10:00 pm; as regards the sale of food on public roads, it will also be until 10:00 pm, but it will only be to take the food home ", he commented.
On the other hand, it was detailed that the capacity of public beaches will be 30%, with restricted hours from 7:00 to 19:00; likewise, religious activities, including cinemas, are suspended.
“All social events, parties in public rooms and parties at homes are canceled; in public transport a capacity of only 50% is established and under strict surveillance ”, said Rubén Muñoz.
Finally, in the case of gyms, it was detailed that only outdoor activities will be allowed and that the La Paz boardwalk will be closed in the evening: from the morning to 10 in the morning ”, he added.

Globally, new COVID-19 cases increased for the eighth consecutive week, with more than 5.2 million new cases reported in the last week –surpassing the previous peak in early January 2021 (Figure 1). The number of new deaths increased for the fifth consecutive week, an 8% increase as compared to the previous with over 83000 new deaths reported. Last week the reported cumulative COVID-19death toll surpassed 3 million lives; the pace of deaths is accelerating, it took nine months to reach 1 million deaths, another four to surpass 2 million, and just three to reach 3 million deaths. 

 

All regions except the European and Western Pacific regions reported an increase in the number of weekly deaths, with the largest increase in the South-East Asia Region followed by the Eastern Mediterranean Region, largely due to an increase in new deaths in the Islamic Republic of Iran.The countries reporting the highest number of new cases represent four of the six WHO regions: India (1429304 new cases; 64% increase), the United States of America (477 778 new cases; 2% increase), Brazil (459 281 new cases; 1% decrease), Turkey (414 312 new cases; 17% increase), and France (233 275 new cases; 12% decrease).

Last week the Mexican government announced that its inoculation program - one of the most ambitious in Latin America - had essentially come to a standstill. The country of 128 million people has received just 766,350 doses of vaccine, all produced by Pfizer-BioNTech.
That figure was supposed to hit 1.5 million by the end of the month. Mexican officials have described the delay as a minor setback and said shipments from Pfizer are expected to resume Feb. 15. 2021. “It is simply going to be temporarily postponed,” said Mexico’s undersecretary of health, Dr. Hugo López-Gatell, who is leading the nation’s pandemic response.
Officials here said they have already made deals to purchase enough vaccine to inoculate the entire country. They have signed agreements with Pfizer, China’s CanSino Biologics and the British company AstraZeneca to purchase enough vaccine for 128 million people. They are also trying to line up enough of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia for 12 million more. 

 

In November, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the World Health Organization, urged Mexico’s leaders be serious about the coronavirus and set examples for its citizens, saying that “Mexico is in bad shape” with the pandemic. A new set of rules requiring all travelers entering the US by sea, air or land to show proof of a recent negative coronavirus test and self-quarantine or self-isolate after entry.

Between the night of Thursday 14 and the afternoon of this January 17, 471 new cases of Coronavirus and 18 deaths were registered, of which 10 were in La Paz; another 377 people recovered, according to the count issued by the Ministry of Health (SSA).
The cumulative total reached 20,410 confirmed cases from the end of March to date; This figure includes 908 deaths, as well as 17,742 recovered and 1,760 patients in their active phase.
La Paz was the municipality with the highest number of recent deaths, adding 10 to its figure, which reaches 410 deaths; Similarly, 198 new cases were detected, leaving 957 active. Those recovered reached 8,618, of which 122 are extra.

 

On the other hand, Comondú, there were 4 extra deaths, leaving 100 deaths in the municipality; in addition, 49 people were discharged, being 1,261 so far. Assets number 142, of which 39 are recent.

Dr. Biplav Srivastava, professor of computer science at the University of South Carolina, and his team have developed a data-driven tool that helps demonstrate the effect of wearing masks on COVID-19 cases and deaths. His model utilizes a variety of data sources to create alternate scenarios that can tell us “What could have happened?” if a county in the U.S. had a higher or lower rate of mask adherence. In this interview, he explains how the model works, its limitations and what conclusions we can draw from it.

This is a nationwide tool which can show the effect that wearing masks can have. If it’s a county where people wear masks regularly, it will show you how many COVID-19 cases and deaths they avoided. If you pick a county where people don’t wear masks, it will show you how many cases and deaths could have been prevented there.

The head of the State Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks (Coepris), Blanca Pulido Medrano reported, participating in a virtual conference, that 67 businesses are suspended in Baja California Sur, since they have opened even though they do not fall within the Classification of phase 5 of the COVID-19 traffic light.
"It is a very titanic job [...] we have 67 suspensions throughout the state, and this is secondary to the opening of establishments that are not yet in this level 5 category.
“Very important, if you have a restaurant-bar classification, if nothing else is dedicated to the pure sale of snacks, they are not allowed; for us they are bars ”, referred the doctor.

In this sense, he explained that these contempts have occurred in Los Cabos, La Paz and Loreto, since there are merchants who open regardless of whether the authority may sanction them, so that the opening of these places does not represent a danger to the increase. of Coronavirus cases.

"Of these 67 correspond to gyms, both in Loreto and Los Cabos, and part of La Paz; Party event rooms that are also not authorized at this level and the other, the vast majority of them, are those that call themselves a restaurant-bar and that are bars ”, emphasized Pulido Medráno.
She also recalled that the Presidents of the Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac) in Baja California Sur have already been warned about the consequences of opening businesses that are not allowed.

Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell informed that within 15 days - by late March - Mexico could enter the second stage, community transmission, with which there could be hundreds of COVID-19 coronavirus cases which would need different control measures.
López-Gatell asserted that for now, Mexico remains on stage one, with few imported cases; nevertheless, international airports receiving flights from China or from the 10 countries with active COVID-19 transmission will experience intensified screening through the monitoring of passengers’ temperature and other symptoms.

The second stage, however, would present hundreds of cases and need different control measures.

Mexico’s low, barely budging count of confirmed #coronavirus cases is raising concern about the adequacy of testing in the country and whether the government is doing enough to prepare for an epidemic. As of Tuesday, only eight cases of Covid-19 had been confirmed since the first was reported Feb. 28 and Mexico was monitoring 37 possible cases.
By comparison, Brazil, where the first case was confirmed two days before Mexico’s, confirmed 37 cases and suspected another 876. On Wednesday evening, Mexico’s Health Ministry said the number of confirmed cases had reached 12. Yesterday, the outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, as worldwide cases topped 120,000 and deaths exceeded 4,300. Countries still have a chance to alter the course of the pandemic, the WHO said, urging governments to step up containment efforts through testing, tracing and isolating.

As of Tuesday night, the Mexican Health Ministry said it had performed 278 tests. “I’m worried about the lack of diagnostic testing,” said Francisco Moreno, infectious disease specialist and head of Internal Medicine at ABC Hospital in Mexico City. “If Mexico has undetected cases circulating, the spread of the disease is going to be brutal.”