Yucatán ready to break out of orange alert, say businesses

Yucatán, stuck in what seems like forever at the orange traffic signal, is ready to advance to yellow.

That’s the message from the region’s employer associations, noting that two weeks after Easter, a surge in coronavirus infections has yet to be detected.

If new infections and hospitalizations remain stable in today’s health bulletin, the state should ease curfews and restrictions on business and social activities, said Fernando Ponce Díaz, speaking for both the Business Coordinating Council and Corparmex.

“We have to wait 15 days after Easter to see that the number of cases does not increase, as well as those hospitalized,” said Ponce Díaz. “Let’s hope this happens.”

The economy has been under an orange-level alert, restricting mobility, operating hours and restaurant, theater or hotel capacity, for a year. Yucatán health officials will announce the state’s status at the traffic light during its Thursday briefing.

Last week ended with nearly the same number of daily deaths and new cases as the week before. On average 75 new infections were detected daily and nine patients died every 24 hours. The number of patients dropped from 750 a month ago to 611 on Saturday. Among the current patients, 153 were under hospital care and 458 were allowed to recuperate under quarantine at home.

Yucatán has documented 36,235 COVID-19 infections since March 2020. Of those, 11% have died.