MEXICO CITY (MEXICO) – Mexico has registered 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths a few days exceeding the grim milestone of one million infections, official data showed on Thursday.
Mexico’s official death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, is among the highest worldwide, and is behind US and Brazil.
Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the public face of the government’s efforts to contain the virus, told reporters on Thursday evening, “Mexican society had no prior antecedent of an acute, infectious disease that could cause such rapid spread and affect the lives of so many.”
Its mortality rate of nearly 10% is higher than any other country that has reported more than a million cases, and government officials acknowledge that the count almost certainly reflects only a fraction of the real death toll.
Mexico’s outbreak has likely been overwhelmed by chronically underfunded public hospitals.
The health ministry reported 576 new deaths on Thursday, bringing the toll to 100,104. Nearly two-thirds of the dead are men, official data show. The ministry’s own figures has more than 15,000 additional “suspected” deaths listed.
The average age of the COVID-19 fatalities is 64.
Mexico City and its densely-packed suburbs has been a hot spot for infections.
Laurie Ann Ximenez-Fyvie, a leading doctor with Mexico’s National Autonomous University, told local radio earlier on Thursday that the actual number of deaths in Mexico due to the pandemic is “easily” already over 200,000.
She dismissed top Mexican public health officials who have at times suggested that the crisis is getting less intense.
“They continue not taking containment measures needed to bring this catastrophe under control,” she said.