Live
Audio Only
The AMLO administration would pay for services so that all citizens can have access to health care regardless of their economic situation.
Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) announced on Thursday that his administration is requesting that private hospitals offer free care to those affected by the novel coronavirus.
RELATED:
He referred to "a new stage" in the country, which will consist of the conversion of some public hospitals into specialized COVID-19 centers, with support provided by private institutions.
"As [private hospitals] no longer have the same occupation that they had before, we want to sign or establish an agreement, a contract with them," President Lopez Obrador said.
The leftist leader also explained that such an agreement would involve the government paying for services so that all citizens would have access to care regardless of their economic situation.
Evolution of cases in Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, since 100th confirmed case. pic.twitter.com/d7FBHkfFyR
— COVIDBot (@COVID19_bot) October 16, 2020
In April, the AMLO administration signed a collaboration agreement with the National Association of Private Hospitals and the Mexican Hospital Consortium that was meant to address the care deficit faced by the public health system with the arrival of the pandemic in the country.
"Now that contagion is decreasing, we have a lower presence of patients in hospitals," said the president, adding that the government is aiming to keep "the best of the best" medical professionals and equipment available so that fewer deaths from the disease occur.
As of Oct. 14, Mexico had registered 829,396 COVID-19 cases and 84,898 deaths.
Newsletter
