Mexico is one of the countries that less tests for coronavirus applies among the population 0.4 tests for every 100,000 inhabitants. This has generated constant uncertainty regarding the official figures of COVID-19 in the country, which have been criticized outside the territory.
The undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell, accepted on May 8 that there is an underreporting of the number of patients who died with symptoms of COVID-19. Now, the non-profit civil association, Mexicans Against Corruption and Impunity (MCCI) revealed in an investigation that the death toll from the pandemic in the country's capital could be three times larger than expressed in official figures.
Between March 18 and May 12, Mexico City had 4,577 death certificates that, according to the information to which the association had access, they establish as confirmed or probable cause COVID-19. These were registered in seven capital courts.
Of the total, 3 thousand 209 consider it suspicious or probable and only 323 had the confirmation registered of the illness.
By contrasting these data with that reported by the authorities, that is, 937 deaths until May 12, the differences between one figure and another is contradictory, since the certificates reveal that there are three times as many dead.
The association considered for the investigation those documents that had as confirmed or probable cause the words "Covid-19", "coronavirus", "SARS CoV-2" or "NCOV". In addition, it claims to have collated the information with that found in the digital portal of the Civil Registry.
Regarding the certificates that qualify the coronavirus as “suspicious”, “probable” or “possible”, MCCI points out that these they also had some other condition "pneumonia, respiratory failure, septic shock or multiple organ failure".
In addition to the 323 records confirming the disease in the deceased, There are 45 others in which it is not specified whether the person was confirmed or not. However, from those who tested positive for the disease, 45% had some type of comorbidity like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, asthma or COPD and more than half of the confirmed deaths occurred among people between the ages of 50 and 70.
Also, foreign newspapers such as New York Times and the Wall street journal They indicated that the number of people who had died from COVID-19 recorded by the authorities was well below reality.
MCCI verified a sample of 345 pages by comparing them with the information that appears on the page of the General Directorate of the Civil Registry of Mexico City. Of the total, 343 agreed in each of the items with the database obtained.
Given this situation, on May 13, the State Committee for Epidemiological Surveillance in Mexico City agreed to create the Scientific-Technical Commission for the Analysis of Mortality by COVID-19. A spokesman for the Mexico City government assured that there was no position on the matter and that the issue would be reviewed by the Committee that was established.
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