MEXICO CITY (AP) – In the year in which the first case of coronavirus in Mexico was identified, the disease killed at least 185,257 people and made nearly 2.1 million sick.
Mexico registered its first case on February 26, 2020, in a man who had traveled to Italy.
The Health Department reported just over 8,000 confirmed infections and 783 confirmed deaths on Saturday, but since Mexico does so few tests, the actual number is certainly much higher.
Excess mortality statistics, which have not been updated since the end of 2020, suggest that the actual number of deaths is likely to be well above 220,000, even before the increase in cases in January.
Mexico has administered a total of nearly 2.4 million doses of various vaccines, but has not yet received enough injections to vaccinate even 1% of the country’s 126 million inhabitants, because most require two injections.