Mexico: Hugo López-Gatell requires oxygen five days after catching coronavirus

The Undersecretary of Health of Mexico and strategist against the pandemic, Hugo Lopez-Gatell, lowered his oxygenation levels and requires oxygen to treat covid-19, the director of Health Promotion, Ricardo Cortés, reported this Wednesday.

“The doctor presented yesterday (Tuesday) a slight decrease in his oxygenation levels and on the recommendation of his doctor he is receiving supplemental oxygenation”, Cortés explained after giving the daily report of the new coronavirus.

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Mexico reported this Wednesday 1,006 new deaths from covid-19 in the last 24 hours to accumulate a total of 182,815 fatalities and records more than 2 million confirmed cases.

Cortés, after discussing the health of López-Gatell, took away the importance of the treatment of his superior by ensuring that “Early attention to the conditions that could go from mild to moderate will pay off great results so that they do not become complicated and return to a mild condition and then have an absolute recovery.”

The official in charge of the strategy to combat and attend the covid-19 pandemic in Mexico tested positive for the virus last Saturday, a few days before a year after the detection of the first case of this disease in the country, on February 27, 2020.

López-Gatell, 51, was reluctant to use the mask at the beginning of the epidemic and on many occasions assured that it was not “useful” or that its effectiveness was low in preventing infections.

The now undersecretary is an epidemiologist and researcher and took office in the Government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, on December 1, 2018.

The Undersecretary of Health was five days before his positive in the morning conference of the president of the country, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, where he coincided with the president, who suffered from covid-19 at the end of January, and with the Secretary of Defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, who announced his infection the day after that contact.

López-Gatell, Sandoval, the Secretary of Foreign Relations, Marcelo Ebrard, and the Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, 75, were present at the presidential conference, all without masks.

In addition to them, López-Gatell and Sandoval, López Obrador himself, the secretaries of Agriculture, Víctor Villalobos; Energy, Rocío Nahle; Finance and Public Credit, Arturo Herrera; Public Function, Irma Eréndira Sandoval; Communications and Transportation, Jorge Díaz; Marina, Rafael Ojeda; and Security, Rosa Icela Rodríguez.