Written by Hannah Schmidtler
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Twitter that he has tested positive for COVID-19. So far, he has reported only mild symptoms.
“I regret to inform you that I am infected with COVID-19. The symptoms are mild, but I am already under medical treatment. As always, I am optimistic. We will all move forward,” read his tweet.
Currently, Mexico reports 150,000 COVD-19 deaths and 1.7 million infections. In many areas, hospital capacity is critically low; hovering around zero available ICU beds for the past few weeks.
Mr. López Obrador has faced criticism for refusing to lockdown the county, but he argues that a lockdown would have devastating economic impacts. California faced a swath of negative economic impacts as a result of lockdowns, so the Mexican President does make a valid point.
When asked what he was doing to protect Mexicans from the virus, he responded by taking two religious amulets from his pocket and stating, “The protective shield is the ‘Get thee behind me, Satan.’ Stop, enemy, for the Heart of Jesus is with me.”
Mexico has vaccinated 618,000 people with the Pfizer vaccine. However, they require more vaccines to keep up with demand. To increase the supply and speed of vaccination efforts, López Obrador has been working to obtain vaccines from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
