▲ In Huangpu District of Shanghai, precautions continue against the latest outbreak of coronavirus.Photo Afp
Angeles Cruz Martinez
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, June 6, 2022, p. 17
The number of people with covid-19 is on the rise in the country. After the drop in cases to minimum levels in mid-April, the rebound is now evident in several entities: Mexico City went from 944 to 4,286 estimated cases; Sinaloa, from 57 to 1,078; Baja California Sur, from 80 to 642, and the state of Mexico, from 309 to 843, indicates information from the Ministry of Health (Ssa).
Meanwhile, in Jalisco it rose from 88 to 551 and in Nuevo León, from 79 to 956. Although the cases of infection have increased every week, the figures are still well below those registered in the first days of January 2022. , when in the country’s capital, where the greatest impact from the covid-19 pandemic has been concentrated, there were 97,601 sick people.
To take into account, say specialists, is that ómicron continues to be predominant in the country. There are still no signs of a new variant, so it is foreseeable that due to the hybrid immunity achieved by vaccination coverage of 86 percent in people 12 years of age and older, and 66 percent in boosters, added to a high percentage of the population that has already been exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus –with the omicron variant in particular–, an eventual fifth wave of transmission would have a lesser impact on severe cases and mortality.
Until yesterday, hospital occupancy remained at minimum levels in general beds and in those with a ventilator.
Another indicator of the increase in the transmission of the coronavirus is the positivity rate, that is, the percentage of cases confirmed with laboratory tests in relation to the tests carried out. In the fourth wave, which was recorded between January and February 2022, it reached 65.12 percent.
At the decline of this cycle, positivity stood at 10.2 percent in the national average, while for the week of May 22 to 28 it was already at 26 percent.
A recent investigation into the level of protection that people have against the coronavirus found that those who had covid-19 without being vaccinated or even if they received a dose, developed antibodies, but these decrease over the months.
However, this protection is greater than that provided by two doses of the vaccines in people who have not had covid-19, warns in the work of experts from Israel’s health and research institutes published in the scientific journal The New England Journal of Medicine, which states that the defense system of those who have received two-dose vaccination schedules is strengthened with the booster injection, at the same level as in the first months after the initial immunization schedule. The same happens if a single dose is applied to those recovered from covid-19.
In Mexico, the Vaccination Plan consists of vaccinating people from 12 years of age with complete schedules and reinforcement, regardless of whether or not they have had covid-19.
