‘Doing well,’ says Mexico’s president

MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador posted a video of himself walking slowly through his offices Friday and talking for about 13 minutes, saying he is recovering from covid-19.

Lopez Obrador has not been holding his famous, hourslong daily news conferences for the first time since he took office in December 2018, and he evidently misses the opportunity to talk.

The president, who has been in isolation since testing positive for the coronavirus over the weekend, said: “The doctors tell me I am getting through the critical stage. I am doing well.”

He has been receiving treatment at his apartment in the colonial-era National Palace, where he also has offices.

Lopez Obrador said Mexico will import the AstraZeneca vaccine from India and that the government expects China’s CanSino vaccine to submit test results soon.

Along with Russia’s Sputnik vaccine, he said, Mexico expects to have 6 million doses of vaccines by the end of February and 12 million in March.

He said that could allow all elderly people in Mexico to get at least one shot. So far, Mexico has been using only the Pfizer vaccine and has been administering second doses as scheduled.

However, Mexico has only about 760,000 Pfizer doses, about half the amount it needs just to vaccinate front-line health personnel.

The country reported 1,434 newly confirmed covid-19 deaths Friday, bringing its total for the pandemic to 156,579. However, Mexico has an extremely low rate of testing, and estimates of excess deaths suggest the real toll to date is more than 195,000.

The country also recorded 18,670 newly confirmed coronavirus infections, bringing the total to 1.84 million.

The recent surge in cases lost Mexico its only state that was considered in the lowrisk category, with the federal Health Department revealing that Campeche was once again in the moderate-risk category.