Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador announced on Sunday that he has tested positive for coronavirus infection. However, Obrador stated that his COVID-19 symptoms are mild. Using his official Twitter handle, the president said he has since been placed under medical observation.
“I regret to inform you that I am infected with COVID-19,” Obrador tweeted. “The symptoms are mild, but I am already under medical treatment. As always, I am optimistic. We will all move forward.”
Obrador has been severely berated for the way and manner he had handled the pandemic in the country, with many emphasizing how the president had refrained from promoting prevention strategies and guidelines in the public.
The country’s director of epidemiology Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra said that the president only had a mild case of the COVID-19 and was isolating at his residence. In a daily news briefing that he grants for about two-hour every week, the president said that his Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez Cordero would be temporarily taking his duties why he recovered from the disease.
Obrador has never been seen in public observing COVID-19 health protocols by wearing a face mask. He has also continued to keep pace with his itineraries by taking commercial flights. The president was never a fan of shutting down the economy even at the height of the coronavirus infections. He noted that he was quite concerned about the adverse effects that restricting economic activities would have on the everywhere activities of ordinary folks, NPR reports.
This is despite the fact that Mexico has a death rate of almost 150,000 deaths occasioned by the coronavirus disease. The country has recorded 1.7 million infections since the pandemic began, and only last week the country recorded the highest number of deaths and infections from COVID-19.
During the early period of the pandemic, when he was asked how he was keeping the country safe from the pandemic, Obrador showcased a religious amulet to the audience, insinuating that that was all the country needed to protect itself from the public health challenge that has ravished most parts of the world.
Obrador had earlier been criticized by the World Health Organization, who tasked the country’s leaders to get serious about curbing the tide of the coronavirus in the country. The global health agency demanded that the country proceeds in the right direction to enable her citizens to follow suit.
It was the practice of the president to hug and shake supporters at every given opportunity even without putting on a form of protective gear. In series of photos that have been released to the public, the president and his officials can be seen sitting down together without any form of social distancing or mask-wearing.
President Lopez Obrador noted he was not keen on getting vaccinated insisting that he was already getting tested regularly for the COVID-19. Lopez Obrador is particularly among individuals that are at high risk of the virus due to his age and underlying health condition.
The country may have given 630,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to its citizens since the vaccination program commenced. Russia is also set to supply Mexico with the Sputnik vaccine that the country manufactured last year. Although the vaccine is yet to be approved by the country’s regulator, Mexico is looking to augment its vaccine stockpile.
Source: apnews.com
