Mexico passes Italy in COVID-19 deaths

Now 4th highest in global tally; no death in NYC in 4 months

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 deaths in Mexico has surpassed 35,000, making it the country with the fourth highest total, while New York City recorded no COVID-19 death in a day for the first time in four months, according to authorities. A tally by Johns Hopkins University shows that only the United States, Brazil and the United Kingdom have more confirmed deaths from the infectious disease.

The rise to 35,006 confirmed deaths on Sunday moved Mexico, a country with 130 million inhabitants, past Italy.

Italy currently has 34,954 fatalities from the COVID-19.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, however, insisted that the development of the pandemic in Mexico “is positive, it is good” because of the country’s 32 states, only nine had increases in infections.

“The bottom line is that the pandemic is on the downside, that it is losing intensity,” López Obrador said.

Nevertheless, some days this past week have seen record daily numbers of new infections.

The country’s Deputy Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell said the number of confirmed cases of the COVID-19 rose to 299,750 on Sunday.

Meanwhile, New York City – once the epicenter of America’s coronavirus outbreak – on Sunday reported its first day with zero confirmed or probable COVID-19 fatalities since the pandemic hit New York State, according to a report by Bloomberg.

Initial data came from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The Bloomberg report said the milestone marked “the end of a four-month stretch since the city reported its first COVID-19 death on March 11.”

The peak of the city’s confirmed daily COVID death count was recorded at 597 on April 7.

In California, a heat wave has brought crowds to beaches, where people mostly heeded warnings to keep a safe distance from each other as the state grappled with a spike in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations.

Lifeguard Chief Jason Young on Sunday said people are spread out on Orange County beaches. Temperatures soared into the 90s in many areas from San Diego north to the San Francisco Bay Area.

The statewide death toll increased by 71 to hit 7,107. There are more than 320,800 positive cases statewide.

AFP Mexican government officials stand next to some of the more than 200 urns containing the ashes of Mexicans who died from COVID-19 in the United States after the repatriation of their remains, during a ceremony at the presidential hangar in Mexico City on Saturday.