the virus in the world. on july 2, tianguis reopened in mexico city and restaurants and hotels in the same city may reopen but with only 30% of its capacity. the following day, beauty salons and barber shops reopened as well in mexico city. on july 4, mexico moved to sixth place in the number of deaths by covid-19, surpassing france. on july 5, the mexico city government announced that access to the zócalo will be limited, closed the downtown mexico city metro stations, and said it will be controlling both vehicular and pedestrian traffic, as well as enforcing rules about social distancing and the use of face masks. on july 6, the states of chiapas, chihuahua, morelos, querétaro, zacatecas, and mexico city showed declines in the number of confirmed cases by day, with the later having 12 consecutive days of decline. the states of tabasco, sonora, coahuila, and tamaulipas showed increases in the number of confirmed cases by day. 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. 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. in the doctor macedonio benítez fuentes general hospital in juchitán de zaragoza, oaxaca, 104 of 249 healthcare workers tested positive for covid-19. on july 14, the national council of science and technology (conacyt) announced the development of two mexican-made ventilators: ehécatl (the aztec god of wind; in nahuatl) 4t and gätsi (otomi for "breath"). on july 15, mexico, the united states, and canada agreed to keep restrictions on non-essential travel in place until august 21. the directorate-general for epidemiology of the secretariat of health reported that covid-19 is the leading cause of death for pregnant women this year as 73 of 417 deceased pregnant women died of covid-19; additionally, there are 23 suspected deaths of covid-19. july 16–31 on july 20, secretary jorge alcocer varela and undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell canceled a meeting with governors of the national action party, although they did meet with the national governors conference and with chairman mauricio vila dosal of yucatán of the conference's health commission, the governors from the national action party wanted to remove the "traffic light" health alert system stating that "the traffic light isn’t helping at all" and they proposed replacing the traffic light with "new health indicators". on july 21, the secretariat of health announced the ten municipalities with the highest rates of infection, those being: piedras negras, coahuila; ciudad valles, san luis potosí; cosamaloapan de carpio, veracruz; tenosique, tabasco; centro, tabasco; teoloyucan, state of mexico; nacajuca, tabasco; acuña, coahuila; milpa alta, mexico city; and othón p. blanco, quintana roo. the secretariat also announced that the number of deaths surpassed 40,000 on july 21. dr. mike ryan of who said that no one should expect a vaccine before early 2021. 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 26, churches in mexico city reopened with 20% capacity. on july 30, undersecretary hugo lópez-gatell threatened with criminal sanctions to governors who deliberately change the traffic light status of their respective states. 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 criminal liable for that decision. several governors rejected the propsal. august 2020 august 1–15 on august 3, patricia ruiz anchondo, the mexico city social prosecutor, announced that over 3,000 complains 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." health workers, teachers, and social organizations march in chiapas on august 9 to demand the release of dr. vicente grajalas yuca, accused of abuse of power after he denounced a lack of medicine in state hospitals. other marches take place in oaxaca, quintana roo, verzcruz, and morelos. there are 52,298 virus deaths and 480,278 confirmed cases. on august 11, gustavo de hoyos, president of the business group coparmex called upon president lópez obrador to wear a face mask as an example for everyone else. in an effort to control the spread of the virus, the government of querétaro said that, since may 2020, they had turned back over 63,000 visitors from neighboring states. 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.