Mexican officials announced on Wednesday, 14 health workers who had arrived in Mexico City turned victims of the so-called "virtual kidnapping" last week, which forced the police to respond to hotels where they were staying to guarantee their safety.

The nurses, whom the Mexican Social Security Institute employed, recently came to Mexico City from Monterrey, the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon's capital. 

They came to Mexico to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic which has spread all over the world. In addition, the said nurses were staying at hotels el Bonn and Ambos Mundos, both in the famous neighborhood of Tacubaya, located in central Mexico City, the country's worst-hit by the virus.

Frontliners Receiving Video and Phone Calls

According to reports, the frontliners started to receive video and phone calls threatening them that they would be attacked or kidnapped if they attempted to leave the building.

Additionally, the callers also claimed they had access to the security cameras of the hotels the nurses were staying, and thus they were able to track their movement.

In a statement  released by the prosecutor's office of Mexico City, the culprits called the relatives of the said nurses and informed them "that they were holding their family members," that if they failed to deposit a certain amount of money, they would do the victims harm. 

After they received tips about the ongoing blackmail plan, El Pais, a Spanish newspaper reported, the Mexican National Guard and Mexico City Police responded to the said hotels. 

The authorities, were able to trace the calls back to a local prison. FGI or the prosecutor's office of the city said, what transpired was "a crime of extortion and not kidnapping," which engaged making the victims believe that their life is in danger and should follow as instructed on the phone.

One of the Many Attacks and Threats

With roughly nine million residents, Mexico City has recorded the most number of infections and mortalities in the country.

The incident that took place last week, according to reports, is just one of the many attacks and threats reported against frontliners who have come to the city to serve amid the public health crisis. 

In addition, it was said that such threats and attacks take place as many are afraid that medical practitioners being deployed from the other parts of Latin America are spreading the virus.

On Tuesday, the Health Ministry of Mexico said, about 20 percent of the over 50,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country "involve health care workers."

Meanwhile, Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has reportedly received criticism over the country's lack of widespread testing for the virus among the general public.

Related reports indicated that critics are afraid the case count and death toll have both gone considerably underreported. Associated Press reported that just about 150,000 "have been carried out so far" in a country with around 125 million of the population.

Furthermore, in a new report released early this week, the Mexicans Against Corruption, an anti-corruption group said, a record of death certificates in Mexico City has suggested that there were more than 4,500 cases where doctors cited COVID-19 as a possible cause of death.

The said number is more than thrice the officially recorded number of deaths in the city. On Monday, the federal government had recognized only 1,332 confirmed fatalities in the city from the time the pandemic started. 

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