Mexico registered 501 new deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday, its biggest single-day increase in fatalities yet, as the jump in new cases also set a record.
The country’s totals now stand at 74 560 cases of coronavirus and 8 134 deaths, health authorities told a press conference.
Meanwhile, the country’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Sunday that the novel coronavirus could cost as many as a million jobs in the country as many industries considered not essential remain shut.
The Mexican economy was already in recession before the pandemic struck and different investment banks have forecast contractions as large as 9% for this year with only a gradual recovery next year.
“My prediction is that with coronavirus, a million jobs will be lost,” Lopez Obrador said in a televised speech. “But we will create two million new jobs.”
The job loss number matches the estimate by the country’s business coordinating council (CCE).
Lopez Obrador’s government repeatedly said it had the outbreak under control but since posted record numbers for new cases and deaths.
