Almost a year after the first case of the new coronavirus was reported in Mexico, the country has the highest fatality rate among the 20 nations most affected by the covid-19 pandemic, according to an analysis and data published by Johns Hopkins University .
To arrive at this analysis, the university, which studies the progress of the pandemic at a global level, calculated the number of deaths per 100 people with confirmed COVID-19 infection in each of these nations, an estimate that is made to determine the fatality rate.
Mexico registered a rate of 8.7 deaths per 100 patients infected with covid-19, which places it in the first place in the world in this indicator. It is followed by Peru with 3.6 deaths per 100 infections, Italy with 3.5, South Africa with 3.2, and the United Kingdom with 2.9 deaths per 100 cases.
Germany and Indonesia accumulate 2.7 deaths, and Colombia with 2.6, according to a table published by this university based in Maryland, United States.
In relation to mortality, which is determined by calculating the number of deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, Mexico ranked seventh among these countries, with an indicator of 133.47 deaths. It is below Spain, with 134.97, the United States, with 143.08 and the United Kingdom with 171.56.
Citizen Free Press has requested a comment from the Mexican Secretary of Health on the analysis made by Johns Hopkins University, but has not received a response yet.
What the Mexican government said before about the fatality due to covid-19
In a press conference on May 26 last year, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, denied that the country had the highest fatality rate in Latin America at that time, after the newspaper Reforma published data on it. university that located the country in that place. The president recommended considering the population level of each country.
«To say that Mexico is the first place in fatality in Latin America is a falsehood and the only thing I would recommend is that with data from the World Health Organization it be reviewed how many deaths there have been in Latin American countries and what is the population of each one of the Latin American countries, it is a relatively simple formula ”, he said then.
In that same conference, the Undersecretary of Health, Hugo López-Gatell, pointed out that in Mexico the fatality rate is overestimated since, as he explained, not all cases of coronavirus are counted.
“If people who have the mild disease, on purpose, deliberately and with the intention of reducing infections and protecting health and saving lives, we are asking them to stay at home, it would be completely contradictory that, suppose, Mexico does not suppose that way, that we are counting all the cases, “he said then.
«I return to the formula for calculating fatality, people who have died divided by people who have the disease, and we know that this set of the denominator is not 100 percent present. The consequence: we are overestimating the fatality in Mexico, which we are aware of and, as long as we maintain consistent methods, we can monitor whether the fatality changes or does not change, even though we know that the number by itself is not technically comparable with no other country. ” López-Gatell added at the time.
Last Tuesday, the Ministry of Health of Mexico reported 1,701 new deaths from covid-19, so the total number of deaths in the country rose to 168,432. The agency also reported 10,738 new positive cases, for a total of 1 million 946,751 confirmed infections.
The new count was released a few hours after the health authorities themselves assured that the country was registering a sustained downward trend in the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, something that had not happened, as they pointed out, since October of the year last, when there was a rebound in the pandemic.
“Today Tuesday we present minus 32 percent, surely at the end of the week it will be smaller, but a very important downward change will follow that already suggests a downward change trend,” said López-Gatell.
“As we always say, let it be perfectly clear, this is not a guarantee. In epidemiology there is no guarantee that things will continue to be ongoing, “said the spokesman for the Mexican government for the covid-19 pandemic.