Mexico’s Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Catches COVID-19 for the Third Time

The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has been reported to have been infected with COVID-19 for the third time since the health crisis started.

Reuters reported that Lopez Obrador is currently receiving medical treatment and self-isolating after he tested positive for COVID-19, as announced by Mexico's Interior Minister Adan Augusto in a morning press conference.

Augusto went on to say that the Mexican president was at the presidential headquarters and that Lopez Obrador had shown cold-like symptoms since Saturday. However, the interior minister denied reports of the president suffering a heart attack.

Diario de Yucatan, a local newspaper, has earlier reported that the Mexican president had suffered a heart attack while he was on a trip to the Yucatan Peninsula.

Lopez Obrador then addressed the reports and confirmed on his official Twitter account that he had tested positive for coronavirus, although it was "not serious," adding that his heart is "at 100%."

The Mexican president was known to have the third reinfection of COVID-19, reporting mild symptoms from both of his previous infections of COVID-19 at the peak of the pandemic.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Health

In early 2021, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador was infected with COVID-19. He then recovered after he received treatment, which he described at the time as "experimental."

He then announced in 2022 that he caught COVID-19 for the second time during a spike in COVID-19 infections in Mexico, as reported by the Associated Press News.

Despite his reinfections, AMLO refused to enact mandatory mask mandates and wear a mask even at the peak of the pandemic unless it was needed, which was the case on airline flights.

Augusto will fill in at the daily presidential morning news briefings while he remains in isolation.

The minister said about the condition of the Mexican president that there was no emergency transfer, "no fainting," as some people were "led to believe."

COVID-19 Reinfections

New York State Department of Health data show that around 8.5% of total infections are reinfections, with Washington state having about one percent of all infections being reinfections as of October 2022.

ABC News Go noted that experts say there are numerous reasons behind reinfections, including waning immunity and more transmissible variants.

But those at the highest risk are those vulnerable to serious complications from COVID-19.

The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention noted that the COVID-19 case rate for unvaccinated people was 81.11 per 100,000, which was more than three times higher than the rate of 25.81 per 100,000 among people who are fully vaccinated and boosted.

The chances of reinfection also increase if a person lives in a county with high community transmission levels.

Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital, said that infection varies on every factor, including poor immunity.

He added that there are people with two, three, or even four times of COVID infection, noting that it can be "related to behavior" and "related to practices around masking or travel."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: Andrés Manuel López Obrador da positivo a covid-19 por tercera vez - from MILENIO