Under-reporting due to many infected persons dying before they could be tested

The Ministry of Health in Mexico is admitting to grave errors in its COVID-19 death toll, which is much greater than initially reported.

Mexico has lost more people to COVID-19 than initially reported with the revised numbers showing that more than 300,000 people have died from the pandemic. This is a far cry from the 200,000 COVID-related deaths reported by the Latin American country.

The true count emerged after the health ministry reviewed death certificates issued over the past year. The confusion arose as a result of a lack of testing and inadequate beds space in hospitals for the infected.

Explanation for under-reporting of COVID deaths

The health ministry has explained that many infected people died before they could be tested, therefore leading to the under reporting of COVID deaths. The revised death count puts Mexico in second place among the countries with the highest number of deaths related to the pandemic.

As a result, Mexico has become the second only to the United States with a record number of COVID-related deaths. Mexico comes out ahead of Brazil, which is now in third position in the highest COVID death toll across the globe.

This news of more people dying from COVID is not going down well with the incumbent administration, which was urged in April last year not to downplay the gravity of the disease. The administration refused to shut down the country’s borders and impose stricter lockdowns to halt the virus in its track.

While Mexico has begun vaccinating its people at a considerable speed, the road to recovery still looks far off.