Mexico has been devastated by the COVID pandemic. The official government statistics on cases and deaths are most certainly gross undercounts. For one thing the testing rate in Mexico has been one of the lowest in the world. In Mexico there have only been around 91,000 tests given per one million people. (Compare that to more than 2,000,000 tests per one million people in the U.S.) Obviously, the more tests that are given, the greater the number of cases that are discovered. There have also been accusations of undercounting the number of deaths; listing pneumonia as the cause of death when the underlying reason was COVID. Even though it is only anecdotal evidence, that fact that eleven people on Alejandro's Mexico City street died of the virus is indicative of the gravity of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, I feel safer down there than I do at home in Ohio.
Whenever I leave my apartment or Alejandro's house, I put on an N-95 mask. On the streets of Mexico City the majority, maybe two thirds, of the people are wearing masks... even though the risk of contagion is less out of doors. Yes, there are always some people that I refer to as "screen doors in a submarine" that wear the mask below the nose. But most people are wearing their facemasks properly. I am also impressed with the number of people wearing high quality masks such as the N-95 or the KN-95. You also see people who are wearing both a face mask and a face shield.
Once you enter any public building you are required to wear a mask. At many places they also take your temperature as you enter and give you a squirt of hand sanitizer. (On Mexico City's busy pedestrian Madero Street there are even people... perhaps city employees... that are giving a squirt of sanitizer to any passerby that wants one!) There are numerous places where you walk over a sanitizing mat upon entering although I personally think that is overkill. Before entering the National Museum of Anthropology I was even sprayed down front and back with disinfectant!
The weather down there is obviously more conducive to outdoor dining than up here. Many restaurants have tables outside. Those that do not will usually have someplace near an open door or large open window where I ask to be seated. And all of the waitstaff are properly masked. On all of my trips down there this year, I have only encountered one place, a branch of the taco chain "Taquearte", where some of the waiters had their masks below the nose. I have not gone to that place since then.
I have even started to use public transportation once in a while in Mexico City. I avoid hours when the Metrobus or subway cars are crammed like cans of sardines. Everyone is required to wear a mask, and most everyone is in full compliance. However, there is the occasional fool who can't take a ride without lowering the mask in order to drink a beverage or eat a snack.
Upon returning to Ohio, I am shocked when I walk into the supermarket, and I am one of the very few people with a facemask. (The city of Columbus has a mask mandate, but most of the state, including Cleveland, does not.) A few weeks before my latest trip, I went out to a restaurant with friends. The place was packed with people, and not a single waiter or waitress was wearing a mask. I felt very uncomfortable.
I compare the statistics for Ohio and Mexico. Even though the Mexican statistics must be taken with much more than a grain of salt, they are going down. Again, this is anecdotal, but, on my latest trip, Alejandro never mentioned a single friend, acquaintance, or neighbor who had died of COVID. Here in Ohio, however, the cases are going up. We are number 7 in population in the U.S., but for the last several days we have been in the top three or four in the number of new cases. Yesterday we had over 9500 new cases compared to a purported 3088 cases for the entire nation of Mexico.
Yes, in spite of the concern over the Omicron variant, I will happily return to Mexico in January, and take my chances (with proper precautions, of course) down there.
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