In retaliation to the coronavirus pandemic, Mexico was unable to enforce initiatives immediately. A little over a month ago, President Andres Manuel López Obrador shared videos of himself and encouraged people to go to establishments. 

Now the nation has begun to respond. Although it states it has screened more citizens, Mexico's death ratio to reported cases is the highest in Latin America, implying it doesn't do enough to distinguish cases.

Mexico City hospitals are starting to reach a breaking point right after receiving 100 more COVID-19 patients needing intubation in just two days, quoting Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, as reported by a newspaper publication.

Mexico's Lack of PPE

According to the state health department, at the end of March at the IMSS General Hospital in Monclova in the northern state of Coahuila, at least 51 workers had been diagnosed with the latest coronavirus, and two medical doctors and a hospital administrator had died. The hospital is the first hot spot in Mexico for the coronavirus-related disease.

The Monclova outbreak was the first in a sequence of hospital infections that shaken Mexicans and raised concerns regarding the Social Security Institute, the nation's largest public health provider. Doctors and nurses across the world have been staging rallies. Baja California Governor Jaime Bonilla exploded at government authorities over his border state's shortage of protective equipment, claiming healthcare professionals were "dropping like flies."

The nursing staff at a government hospital struck by Mexico's worst coronavirus pandemic have been advised at the beginning of the outbreak by their supervisors not to wear safety masks to prevent sowing mass hysteria among patients, nurses as well as other medical personnel.

Flare-ups at some other medical facilities accompanied the Monclova outbreaks. Two personnel at Hospital No. 26 developed symptoms in the resort town of Cabo San Lucas, so officials checked the entire staff- forty-two of them had the virus.

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The Effect of AMLO's Policy

Since coming to power in December 2018, new regulations adopted by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador have complicated matters more.

To maximize profits and prevent corruption, López Obrador centralized government purchases of pharmaceuticals. Yet somehow, it only resulted in drug shortages. He decided to launch an adjustment campaign that frustrated IMSS head Germán Martínez so much that he resigned last May. Martínez considered healthcare budget reductions "inhumane."

In addition to this, Lopez Obrador has reportedly capitalized on the outbreak of coronavirus, as he sees the economic crisis as an opportunity to promote his revolutionary agenda. Similarly, López Obrador overhauled Insabi, another significant public health program targeting the most impoverished Mexicans.

Borja, the head of medical benefits at the IMSS, said that "the important thing is what we've learned from these outbreaks," such as the need to disinfect medical facilities immediately. 

In recent days, Mexican officials have acquired a lot of imported medical equipment that should address their shortages, he added. They have reported incentives of 20 percent for IMSS healthcare personnel who deal with patients with COVID-19.