By Jorge Antonio Rocha
MEXICO (AA) - Mexico has surpassed 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths nine months since the pandemic began, Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Thursday.
The country has recorded 100,104 deaths amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to Jose Luis Alomia Zegarra, Mexico’s director of epidemiology.
The country has a total of 1,019,543 confirmed infections.
There has been an unprecedented spike in new infections nationwide and especially in seven states.
Lopez-Gatell expressed his solidarity with the families of those who have lost their lives to the disease.
"This is unusual. There is no precedent in Mexican society of an acute infection that affected the lives of people in this manner," he said.
The country’s first death from COVID-9 occurred on March 18. Mexico currently ranks fourth among the countries with the most fatalities from the disease after the US, Brazil and India.
Lopez-Gatell said deaths from the pandemic in Mexico stem from significant incidences of underlying conditions such as obesity and diabetes, which are common in the country.