Mexico reports first death as coronavirus engulfs continent

Mexico reports first death as coronavirus engulfs continent

Death
Mexico City, March 19, 2020 (dpa/NAN) Mexican officials on Thursday confirmed the country’s first coronavirus-related death as the illness has engulfed most of Central America, the Caribbean and South America.

“A 41-year-old man with no history of foreign travel died as a result of the virus,’’ federal health officials said on Twitter, adding that he had suffered from diabetes and obesity before contracting it.

Local media reported that the man had been to a rock concert performed by the band Ghost in Mexico City on March 3 and may have contracted the virus there because thousands of people had attended.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who has come under fire for what critics see as a lax and irresponsible response to the outbreak, which has affected 118 people so far, warned the public not to panic and defended his decision not to restrict freedom of movement.

“No to authoritarianism, respect the decisions that have been made in other countries, but we do not need that,’’ he said at his daily news conference.

The virus has now reached the vast majority of countries in the region, with Nicaragua and El Salvador, which until now had managed to stave off its arrival, having confirmed their first respective cases.

Other countries to have reported deaths are Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Panama, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, the Cayman Islands, Guyana, Martinique, Jamaica, Cuba and Costa Rica.

ACO/AFA
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Edited by Abiodun Oluleye/Felix Ajide