Mexico City to invest MXN $10 million in hospitals to tackle COVID-19

Mexico City's government will invest MXN $10 million to enable the hospitals that will be taking care of patients with COVID-19 as well as in the installation of hospital wards and first-contact spaces for people with symptoms.

According to Mayoress Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo , there are three ongoing strategies. One of them is the reconversion of the Tláhuac, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, Ajusco Medio, Dr. Belisario Domínguez, and Enrique Cabrera hospitals for attending people with COVID-19 .

Another of the strategies is the installation of tents in five hospitals for the first contact with patients to identify if they have COVID-19.

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“They are small tents to check if they have any COVID-19 symptom before entering the hospital and if they are not serious, they will be sent home so that there are no infections inside hospitals ; if they are serious, they will be sent to the hospitals destined for COVID-19,” she commented.

Moreover, in each of the hospitals, there will be fully-equipped wards with 400 beds in the hospitals that will attend COVID-19 cases that cannot remain isolated at home.

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“They are temporary spaces; we're building the required sanitary hydraulic infrastructure; some beds and medical equipment are being rented. They wouldn't be for intensive care units but for patients that need extra support to the one that they could receive at home or who need some kind of hospitalization,” she explained.

Sheinbaum explained that according to the contingency program, the hospitals from Federal Health Institutions will be used first and then, if it is deemed necessary, Mexico City's hospitals will be used, however, they will be reconverted for COVID-19 and hence, some patients will have to be relocated to other hospitals and non-urgent surgeries will be rescheduled.

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