Prodded by U.S., Mexico aims to restart plants

MEXICO CITY — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador pledged Wednesday to begin reopening Mexico’s economy next week under pressure

— at home and from U.S. offi- cials even as the country

— saw its largest one-day jump in coronavirus cases, hospitals are reeling, and testing remains inadequate.

Economy Secretary Graciela Marquez said the move would be “gradual, orderly and cautious,” and that by May 18, industries like con- struction, mining, and car and truck manufacturing would be allowed to resume.

A lockdown — which includes mandatory closures of “non essential” businesses and began in March — will remain in place, but work in the industries Marquez cited will be allowed to begin again because Mexico’s top advisory body on the pandemic, the General Health Council, said Tuesday it had decided to classify them as “essential activities.”

Mexico has been under pressure from U.S. officials to reopen auto plants, in particular, because without them, integrated supply chains would make it hard for plants in the U.S. and Canada to reopen.

At home, the National Alli- ance of Small Business Own- ers has also complained about lockdown measures at the local level.

But others in Mexico fear a reopening — saying the measures were too long in coming and have been in place for too short a period of time. The announcement came as hos- pitals were nearing overload., and manufacturing workers in border cities like Ciudad Juarez had only recently been sent home after demanding a shutdown in protests prompted by the wildfire spread of the coronavirus through their plants.

Mexican health officials on Tuesday reported the country’s largest single-day jump, with 1,997 new cases and 353 deaths, bringing the total to over 38,000 confirmed cases and almost 4,000 deaths.

Officials have acknowledged the actual number of infections is many times that. Mexico has done relatively little testing, with about 120,000 tests reported so far in a country of almost 130 million. That is equivalent to only about 0.6 people per 1,000 inhabitants tested, the lowest rate in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

That will make it hard to judge whether the reopening will risk a renewed upsurge in cases — and to see one coming if it does. Marquez, the economy secretary, said that schools and businesses would be allowed to reopen in 269 townships with no confirmed cases of COVID-19 — or in about one-tenth of Mexico’s 2,465 townships. They are largely located in rural areas in north-central and southeastern Mexico.

Dr. Miguel Betancourt, president of the Mexican Society of Public Health, cautioned against putting too much stock in the safety of opening places with no recorded cases, given the low level of testing.

“Without a well-implemented system of monitoring or an adequate laboratory testing capacity in these areas, they don’t really know precisely what the situation is,” he said. “Just because there aren’t any cases right now, doesn’t mean there won’t be later.”