with 1,094 confirmed cases and 28 reported deaths in the country. in the evening, a national health emergency was declared by secretary marcelo ebrard; all sectors in the country are urged to stop most of their activities. april–may 2020 on april 10, the total confirmed deaths surpassed two hundred with 233 deaths and 3,844 cases confirmed by mexican authorities. the government of baja california closed a plant belonging to the multinational giant smiths group after the firm refused to sell ventilators to the mexican government. on the same day, mexican consulates in the united states announced the deaths of 181 mexican nationals due to the covid-19 pandemic. on april 13, the number of covid-19 infections in the country passed 5,000; there were 332 deaths. the mexican navy announced it would open ten voluntary self-isolation units to shelter 4,000 covid-19 patients in mexico city, guerrero, jalisco, michoacan, sinaloa, tamaulipas and veracruz. sonora became the first state in the country to declare a curfew. the number of coronavirus cases surges past 10,000 to 10,544 with 970 deaths on april 21. the death toll surpassed the 1,000 figure on april 23. tijuana expects its hospitals to run out of space over the weekend. on may 1, mexico surpassed 20,000 infections of covid-19. mexicanos contra la corrupción (mexicans against corruption) alleged that léon manuel bartlett, son of manuel bartlett the head of the comisión federal de electricidad (cfe), fraudulently tried to sell overpriced ventilators to the mexican institute of social security (imss) in hidalgo. on may 2, mexico surpassed 2,000 deaths due to the covid-19 pandemic. at least forty mexican and guatemalan farm workers in canada contracted coronavirus, that according to the united food and commercial workers. an article published on the new york times on may 8 assured that both the federal government and the state government of mexico city ignored the wave of coronavirus deaths in the capital city. the article criticized the way that president andrés manuel lópez obrador has been handling the pandemic citing the lack of testing done and the fact that the government has been hiding the real number of covid-19 cases and deaths. it was also mentioned that despite the fact that undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell has been saying that "we have flattened the curve" and that only 5% of those infected will show symptoms, and only 5% of those patients with symptoms will go to the hospital, experts say that "their model is wrong" and that "there's a very good consensus on that". more than 100 health workers (doctors, nurses, orderlies, etc.) are among the 3,573 dead from the virus on may 12. between may 9 and may 15, 13,000 new cases were confirmed. the totals were 42,595 cases, 10,057 active cases, and 4,477 deaths on may 15. on may 22, the number of new cases and deaths reported in 24-hours reached a record high of 2,973 and 420 respectively. june–july 2020 on june 2, the number of new cases of infection increased by 4.2% (3,891) compared to the day before. women made up 57% of the 97,326 confirmed cases in the country at the time. 51.2% of all infections (94,958 cases) occurred in the so-called "new normal" from may 18 to june 23 as the period after the country's general quarantine was lifted and states began to resume their economic and social activities in stages. deaths also grew by 56% (12,654 cases) in these 22 days of "new normal." on july 1, mexico became the seventh country with the most covid-19 deaths surpassing spain. the same day, mexico reported 231,770 confirmed cases of covid-19, with this mexico became the tenth country with the most infected people with the virus in the world. on july 4, mexico moved to sixth place in the number of deaths by covid-19, surpassing france. on july 8, department stores reopened in mexico city, but customers were limited to only one hour of shopping, they must wear a face mask, and may not use dressing rooms nor try products such as cosmetics or perfumes. on july 11, mexico surpassed the united kingdom and became the eighth country with the greatest number of confirmed cases in the world. the same day, the ashes of 245 mexicans that died of covid-19 in the united states arrived in mexico city and were given to their respective family. on the same day's daily press conference of undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell, the undersecretary said that the secretariat of health was putting on hold the presentation of next week's "traffic light" due to the inconsistencies found on the data that certain states were reporting. yucatán and quintana roo, states that were pointed out by lópez-gatell for their inconsistencies and delayed reporting, said that they were fully complying with what they were asked to report. on july 12, mexico became the country with the fourth greatest number of deaths in the world with 35,006, surpassing italy. on july 13, 304,435 cases and 35,491 deaths were reported. undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell, said that there has been a decrease in new cases in the valley of mexico as guanajuato moves into second place with 2,530 active cases. nuevo león reports an occupancy rate of 82% in hospitals. on july 22, the assistant director of the pan american health organization, jarbas barbosa, announced that mexico was the 38th country to send a letter of intent to buy a covid-19 vaccine when one is available. secretary marcelo ebrard said there was evidence that a vaccine might be available during 2020, and that the goal is an even distribution of 2 billion doses among the other 77 countries. on july 23, president lópez obrador confirmed that he had relatives infected by covid-19 and even that some have died because of the virus. on july 30, undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell threatened governors who deliberately change the traffic light status of their respective states with criminal sanctions. on that matter, maricela lecuona gonzález, lawyer of the secretariat of health, said that: when the government of a federal entity ceases to comply with the result of the weekly assessment and omits to call for measures relating to the respective level of risk by the federal health authority, and accordingly instructs its population to take measures related to a lower risk level, after the investigation of the competent authority that so resolves, it is clear that the public servants who take such determination may be civil, administrative and/or criminally liable for that decision. several governors rejected the proposal. the french pharmaceutical company sanofi-pasteur announced it will soon begin testing a covid-19 vaccine in mexico. on july 31, mexico moved into third place in the number of fatalities, behind the united states and brazil, with 46,688 deaths. mexico occupied sixth place globally in the total number of confirmed cases, with 424,637. august–december 2020 office workers wearing masks in mexico city streets on august 3, patricia ruiz anchondo, the mexico city social prosecutor, announced that over 3,000 complaints had been filed regarding parties in apartment buildings that violated the official covid-19 sanitary guidelines. most of them were in the boroughs of benito juárez, cuauhtémoc, and iztapalapa. on august 4, the secretariat of health reported that 4,732 people who spoke an indigenous language have been infected with covid-19 and, of those infected, 798 have died. mexico passed the mark of 50,000 deaths on august 6. the united states department of state classifies travel to mexico as "high risk." on august 13, the carlos slim foundation announced they were going to finance the effort of mexico, argentina, the university of oxford and astrazeneca to produce and distribute the production and distribution of the vaccine against covid-19 that's being developed by the last two. the distribution of the vaccine will begin during the first semester of 2021 and it will be available through latin america, with the exception of brazil. the number of confirmed cases passed 500,000. on august 16, josé luis alomía, director of epidemiology of the secretariat of health, announced that for the third week in a row, the total number of newly confirmed cases in a week saw a decline and, for the first time, the number of recovered cases in a week surpassed the number of newly confirmed cases. on august 18, a group of german virologists arrived to share their knowledge and expertise with the mexican government. on august 25, secretary of foreign affairs marcelo ebrard announced that mexico would be participating in clinical trials for the development of a covid-19 vaccine by the italian istituto nazionale di malattie infettive "lazzaro spallanzani" (national institute for infectious diseases "lazzaro spallanzani"). additionally, he informed that 2,000 mexicans will be participating in stage 3 trials of the gam-covid-vac vaccine (trade name sputnik v) that was developed by russia. over 25 million cases are reported in 188 countries and territories on august 30. six million of those cases are in the united states, and 595,841 are in mexico. on september 3, president amlo said that the government had a savings exchange of up to mxn $100 billion for vaccines, and he asked the different political parties to donate half of their budgets to help pay for the pandemic. deputy mario delgado (national regeneration movement) said that it is an "ethical imperative", he argued that families in mexico shouldn't be allowed to be in a difficult situation while political parties keep getting more resources. inegi reported that the july unemployment rate had fallen to 5.4%, for a total workfoce of 52.6 million (72.2% men and 39.2% women). 10.8 million workers earn between two and five times the minimum wage, 27.3 million people are engaged in the "informal sector". the greatest increases in employment have been in the commercial sector, while construction, restaurants, transportation, and lodging have fallen behind. the catholic church in mexico reported on september 4 a total of 77 priests, seven permanent deacons, and four other religious people have died of covid-19. on september 6, rappi said home blood tests for covid-19 will be available with a fourteen-hour wait for an appointment and a ten-minite wait for results. a large party in which few guests wore facemasks or practiced social distancing, was held in defiance of health regulations at viñedos hacienda de letras in aguascalientes. the state had 489 deaths and 7,601 confirmed cases as of september 6. on september 7, researchers at the unam reported the development of a saliva-based test that is quicker, easier, and more economical than existing tests. results of the study have been published in the journal of clinical microbiology. the consejo nacional para prevenir la discriminación (national council to prevent discrimination, conapred) reports that it has had 426 covid-19-related complaints in five months, mostly the obligation to work while at personal risk. on september 8, foreign minister marcelo ebrard (sre) reported that 17,393 mexicans who were stranded in different countries, mostly in latin american and europe, have been repatriated. the sre also announced that 2,325 mexicans have died of the virus in the united states, six in canada, three in spain, and one each in colombia, france, and guatemala. on september 9, coahuila passed 1,500 deaths; 13,367 people have been released from hospitals. arturo herrera gutiérrez (shcp) reports that 440,000 industrial jobs have returned after closings earlier this year. reuters reports that landsteiner scientific pharmacies will receive 32 million doses of the russian-made vaccine in november. switzerland removes mexico from the list of countries with a high rate of infection. six former health secretaries release a report critical of the government's response to the virus, saying that increased testing and mapping of cases could lead to containing infections in six to eight weeks. pemex became the company with the most covid-19 deaths in the world, with 313. the state-owned oil company also reported 8,166 cases, of which 78.3% have recuperated. the numbers do not include retired workers or families of workers, whose 583 cases have resulted in 413 deaths. on september 10, hugo lópez-gatell thanked the former health secretaries for their report on the government's response to the pandemic, but questioned the timing and possible political motives, noting that the report had been produced with input from the citizens' movement. he also noted the irony of dr. josé narro's criticism of a lack of infrastructure. mexico passed the mark of 70,000 deaths on september 11. on