Between April and July of this year, Mexico registered 123,000 more deaths than in 2019. Only one-third of the 2020 deaths have been confirmed as Covid-19 related.
Although the cause of the 75,000 excess deaths is still unknown, specialists believe they could be from Covid-19, either due to illnesses that went untreated while the medical emphasis was on the pandemic, or people who were afraid to go to a hospital for treatment and died at home.
The data presented September 5 by the National Center for Preventive Programs and Disease Control (Cenaprece) and the National Population Council (Conapo) reveal what many have been arguing for months: that the “official” deaths due to Covid-19 reported by the Ministry of Health represent only a fraction of the real deaths.
Just five days ago, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell, who heads up the government’s pandemic response, admitted that the higher than usual number of deaths have caused a shortage of certificates in the nation’s capital, as well as in the State of Mexico and Baja California.
Due to reduced testing, the government admits the real number of infections in Mexico is significantly higher than the official figures.
That may now also be true of the fatalities.