Más Información
On July 19, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador released a video where he promises to fight chronic health problems and improve health care, as the country’s COVID-19 cases continue to increase.
Mexico’s Health Ministry reported 5,311 more confirmed COVID-19 cases, for a total of 344,224, and 296 more COVID-19 deaths, for a total of 39,184.
On Sunday, President López Obrador told the families of coronavirus victims that he would fight chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure, which make people more likely to suffer severe cases of COVID-19.
The president pledged to do so by promoting physical education, training more medical personnel, and fighting junk food.
López Obrador also said the federal government would provide scholarships to train 30,000 more specialized doctors.
A trade group, the National Association of Softdrink Producers, issued a statement Sunday condemning what it called the “stigmatizing” of soft drinks after Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell referred to them as “bottled poison.”
Mexicans have one of the world’s highest per-capita consumption rates of soft drinks. Officials have said Mexico’s high rates of obesity and diabetes have worsened the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Other commitments include granting credits, pensions, and scholarships to the families of patients who died altering contracting the novel coronavirus. López Obrador said once the pandemic is over, the government will pay homages to those who died from COVID-19.
In total, he made 10 promises to Mexicans:
1. Continue to govern without allowing corruption or squandering to have enough public resources to create new jobs, guarantee good salaries, and the well-being of Mexicans.
2. Prevent illnesses and diseases caused by hunger and poverty.
3. Pay more attention to preventive healthcare, and promote physical activities and sport.
4. Teach children who attend public schools a new class titled “education for health.”
5. Launch a permanent campaign about the importance of a healthy diet and inform people about the dangers of eating junk food.
6. Improve the public healthcare system with more and better hospitals, equipment, doctors, experts, nurses, stretcher-bearers, and other healthcare workers, who will also receive a better salary.
7. Make patients who suffer from chronic illnesses such as high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney failure, obesity, smoking, alcoholism, and drug addiction.
8. Open more medical schools throughout the country and start a scholarship program so that 30,000 doctors can specialize, in Mexico or abroad, to treat the most frequent and dangerous diseases affecting Mexicans.
9. To guarantee the right to health by providing free medical attention, tests, vaccines, and medicines.
10. Grating credits, pensions, and scholarships ton guarantee the well-being of families who lost their relatives to COVID-19.
In the video posted to social media, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador voiced his support to the friends and families who lost loved ones to the novel coronavirus. He said his government will fulfill its duty and will not turn its head on those who suffer and need help.
On May 14, the Mexican government announced healthcare workers fighting the pandemic would receive life insurance.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced healthcare workers that die from COVID-19 will receive life insurance worth MXN 50,000 from the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions (AMIS) that will be retroactive to April 1. The life insurance will cover some 1.6 million workers in that sector.
Sofía Berlmar Berumen, president of the AMIS, said that the insurance would protect frontline healthcare workers who die fighting COVID-19; it will be free and will cover 1.6 million workers.
She said that the insurance will not only cover doctors but also residents, nurses, trainee doctors, among other healthcare workers.
The life insurance will be valid from April 1 to August 31.
Belmar Berumen said that to receive the compensation, the beneficiaries will have to present a certificate from a public health institution that states that the worker was in charge of COVID-19 cases and tested positive for the novel coronavirus, as well as a death certificate.
gm
