Omicron comes to Mexico, a place that never really shut down
The country has already seen over 600,000 excess deaths
A FEW DAYS after Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, caught covid-19 for the second time he was back in person at his daily press conference, extolling the virtues of Vicks VapoRub, an ointment, for treating his covidcito (mini-covid). Such a blasé approach to the virus is showing in the data. Mexico’s official caseload, which is undercounted, has risen more than tenfold since December. Tests are so scarce that people have been told to assume they have the disease.
This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline "Omicron comes to Mexico"
More from The Americas
The world’s most violent region needs a new approach to crime
Gangs are gaining ground in Latin America. Iron-fist policies won’t beat them back
Rural Colombia welcomes gangs that mete out vigilante justice
Using grisly methods, the gangs enforce social conservatism
Years of growth forged prosaic politics. Now Panamanians are fed up
They will elect a new president on May 5th