"No presents:" Mexicans asked to curb Christmas plans to control pandemic

Mexicans should cancel year-end travel plans, curb their movement and even avoid exchanging Christmas presents amid rising coronavirus case numbers in the country, the president said on Friday. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also announced increasing capacity for more hospital beds as well as extra medical equipment and staff to help in the fight to curb the pandemic.

Mexicans should cancel year-end travel plans, curb their movement and even avoid exchanging Christmas presents amid rising coronavirus case numbers in the country, the president said on Friday.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador also announced increasing capacity for more hospital beds as well as extra medical equipment and staff to help in the fight to curb the pandemic. "If we don't have anything truly important to do, let's not go out on the street," he told reporters at his daily morning press conference.

The leftist president, outlining a 9-point plan, said the suggested steps to limit the spread of the virus were especially important for residents of metro Mexico City, the densely-packed capital with a population of over 20 million. Case numbers have been rising noticeably over the past two weeks across the country, with some of the highest figures so far for confirmed infections.

The Latin American nation has recorded 1,144,643 Covid-19 cases and 108,173 deaths, the fourth biggest coronavirus toll in the world. Officials have acknowledged that the confirmed figures only represent a fraction of the true toll due to little testing.

The World Health Organization recently warned that Mexico was in "bad shape" regarding the coronavirus as infections and deaths surge. Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the public face of Mexico's pandemic response, has said the outbreak will likely worsen until January.

Lopez Obrador said there would be no mandatory lockdowns and that he encourages people to act responsibly. But he warned that traditional festive gatherings known as posadas, where friends and family typically gather in a single house, should not take place this year.

He also advised there should be no New Year's Eve parties and even suggested Mexicans do not give Christmas presents this year, saving them for another time. "This pandemic, this nightmare will pass," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)