Mexico's President Obrador holds a news conference in Mexico City
REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo

Mexico's government recently allowed the auto, construction, and mining sectors to resume operations on Monday despite record deaths reported the previous day.

In a news conference on Wednesday, Economy Minister Graciela Marquez said they have issued guidelines that would allow for the re-opening of the manufacturing establishments. The Mexican economy would reopen in stages. Areas with no reported coronavirus cases will be re-opened first.

The General Health Council said the construction, mining, and auto manufacturing sectors were re-classified as "essential activities," allowing them to operate during the COVID-19 lockdown aimed to curb the spread of the virus.

The council also discussed easing restrictions on schools and businesses located in areas that have not reported COVID-19 cases and whose neighbouring towns also have no cases.

According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, he plans to fully reopen the country's economy by the start of June. He said the country would face a cautious and gradual reopening of economic and educational activities. Authorities would also use a "traffic light" coding system that would inform the public which businesses and activities are permitted to restart operations.

The Mexican government is faced with a tough decision as their country's economy-which is the second-biggest in Latin America-began tipping into a recession. Economists believe reopening might help relieve some of the strain on the economy. They also noted that the decision may fan the pandemic.

The two-month shutdown caused the economy to contract around 6 percent-1.5 percent less than the econmists expected. The experts claimed stalling the flow of key businesses a second time may lead the recession to climb to 10 percent.

The announcements came less than a day after Mexico's health officials recorded more than 350 deaths on Tuesday-the country's deadliest day since the start of the pandemic. The new cases bring the country's tally of confirmed COVID-19 cases to 38,324 with fatalities currently nearing the 4,000 mark.

Mexico's Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell believes the actual number may be eight times higher than recorded. Many officials-including mayors, doctors, and former officials-claimed they reported deaths but failed to see them reflected in official federal government counts.

Jesus Roman, the mayor of Chimalhuacan, said they reported 87 fatalities but found only 24 were reported by the federal government. The mayor of Ixtapaluca, Maricela Serrano, echoes the statement, saying the official reports reflected less than half of what they registered.

Employees working in crematoriums also reported cremating up to 20 bodies in a day. Cremation centers have been overwhelmed by the number of bodies in recent weeks that they were forced to leave bodies at hospitals for an extra day due to a lack of space.

Media investigations conducted by the Wall Street Journal and Spain's El Pais claims the nation likely has more than 730,000 coronavirus cases-17 times higher than what is reported.

Despite the record number of cases, President Lopez Obrador has repeatedly assured the country that everything was fine. Deputy Health Minister Lopez-Gatell said his team would multiply the total count of confirmed coronavirus cases by eight to get a better scope of how big the outbreak really was.

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