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Mexico’s traffic light risk level system to begin June 1

Mexico City, Mexico — Andrés Manuel López Obrador reports that on June 1, the traffic light system will begin across Mexico’s as the country’s New Normal. He says that the construction, automotive and mining industries will resume operations as they are considered essential activities.

“These companies will restart activities with limitations and with sanitary protocols as of Monday” he said adding that “they have carried out the procedures in accordance with sanitary regulations.”

This will be the beginning of the country’s return to activities in what authorities are dubbing as the New Normal. The Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion, Hugo López-Gatell Ramírez, explained that the New Normal is so called because it implies a change in attitude and behavior regarding prevention and the application of hygiene measures to coexist with the new SARS-Cov-2 virus.

Normality refers to the return to public life due to the impossibility of suspending it in jobs and schools, mainly, to avoid affecting the well-being of people.

“In Mexico and in the whole world (…) at all times there is certainly the possibility that there will be a rebound of the epidemic in a place that is beginning to open. That is why the cooperation of all members of society, all organizations, all institutions, corporations and companies is important to have an orderly, staggered and well-monitored return,” he emphasized.

He explained that the epidemiological traffic light is an indicator of risk. In green, it represents low risk, in red, high and in yellow and orange, intermediate points of risk.

He explained that economic and social activities were classified into four categories that depend on two situations, social value and number of people. From the qualification derives the progressive announcement the opening of activities.

The risk traffic light has four indicators, he says. They are trend of occurrence of cases, trend of hospitalizations, percentage of hospital occupation and detection of new cases. He explained that the map will change every week depending on the level of risk.

The federal health authority will notify each state of their risk level and the corresponding activities based on it. State authorities will be responsible for establishing the corresponding openings for activities that meet the criteria of social value and number of people on public roads.

AMLO added that if a governor disagrees with the application of the epidemiological risk traffic light, “we would say to him, ‘You go your way. You are going to be responsible to your people.’ Each one must assume the responsibility that corresponds to him.”