The coronavirus pandemic could last in Mexico until next April, with infections expected to rise during the October flu season and through winter, a top health official has said, further pushing back the potential resolution of the crisis.
Mexico has recorded 261,750 total cases and 31,119 overall deaths, putting it in fifth place worldwide for most fatalities from Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus, according to a media tally.
Mexican Deputy Health Minister Hugo Lopez-Gatell, the coronavirus czar, has continually walked back forecasts about when the crisis would peak, and has said the death toll and infection tally are likely higher than reported figures.
In an interview with Mexico’s Radio Formula, he warned that coronavirus infections may persist in significant numbers into the winter, carrying the pandemic into spring.
“Flu season begins in October and there are some reasonable assumptions that we could also have a spike in COVID-19 along with the flu throughout the fall-to-winter season,” he said.
When asked about the length of the pandemic in Mexico, Lopez-Gatell said it could last “until March to April of next year.”
The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has estimated that Mexico will exceed 88,000 deaths from the coronavirus by October.
Amid rising cases of COVID-19, pharmaceutical major Zydus Cadila said it has got approval from Mexico’s Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk (COFEPRIS) for its one of its lead research candidate Desidustat to be tested in the management of COVID-19.
The clinical and regulatory development of Desidustat in COVID-19 is being executed in Mexico by Avant Sante Research Centre, a leading contract research organisation headquartered in Monterrey.
“The company will be conducting a phase 2b, multi-centre, open-label, randomised, comparator-controlled study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Desidustat tablet for the management of Covid-19 patients,” said Zydus in a statement.
As a part of the study, 100 mg tablets of Desidustat will be administered for a period of 14 days along with recommended standard care during the trial.
