Is Mexico hiding the real figures?

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Hidden Toll: The New York Times says Mexico is ignoring the wave of coronavirus deaths in CDMX


MEXICO CITY — The Mexican government is not reporting hundreds, possibly thousands, of deaths from the coronavirus in Mexico City, dismissing anxious officials who have tallied more than three times as many fatalities in the capital than the government publicly acknowledges, according to officials and confidential data reviewed by The New York Times.

The tensions have come to a head in recent weeks, with Mexico City alerting the government to the deaths repeatedly, hoping it will come clean to the public about the true toll of the virus on the nation’s biggest city and, by extension, the country at large.

But that has not happened. Doctors in overwhelmed hospitals in Mexico City say the reality of the epidemic is being hidden from the country. In some hospitals, patients lie on the floor, splayed on mattresses. Elderly people are propped up on metal chairs because there are not enough beds, while patients are turned away to search for space in less-prepared hospitals. Many die while searching, several doctors said.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador waves to supporters cheering from over an outside wall, after visiting facilities at a Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) hospital that will be converted to receive patients suffering from Covid-19, in the Coyoacan district of Mexico City, Friday, April 3, 2020. Lopez Obrador said Thursday that sections of 80 public hospitals were being isolated and prepared with an average of eight beds and respirators to care for an expected influx of patients with the new coronavirus. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

“It’s like we doctors are living in two different worlds,” said Dr. Giovanna Avila, who works at Hospital de Especialidades Belisario Domínguez. “One is inside of the hospital with patients dying all the time. And the other is when we walk out onto the streets and see people walking around, clueless of what is going on and how bad the situation really is.”

Source: The News York Times

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