Cases begin to fall, but COVID claims life of healthy baby

Coronavirus cases declined 15% this week after an omicron-variant surge that began around Christmas.

The last four days saw the first drop in cases since the holidays began. COVID infections were in the single digits on Dec. 19 and 20, but swelled into triple digits by Dec. 31. By Jan. 8, weekly cases were over a thousand.

Saturday’s briefing from the Yucatán health ministry reported 591 cases, compared to a peak of 1,173 cases on Tuesday.

Hospital stays also declined, from 176 to 147. Home quarantine dropped 29% this week, settling at 6,552 on Saturday.

The trend mirrors what’s happening in the United States, where COVID cases have decreased by almost 50% in the last two weeks. 

Deaths, which always lag behind a surge in cases, are another story.

Another 11 people died on Saturday, doctors said, including a Chikindzonot baby girl just a month-and-a-half old and with no comorbidities. The tragedy was Yucatán’s third COVID-related death of a minor since Jan.

A 3-year-old from Mérida also died on Jan. 30 and a 16-year-old from Oxkutzcab perished the next day. Both were also battling compromised immune systems.

Accumulated recorded coronavirus cases in Yucatán topped 100,000 on Thursday while total deaths reached 6,552 on Saturday. Officials admit the true numbers are likely to be many times higher.

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