AMLO asks Mexicans to stay home for 10 days

Mexican president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador asked Mexicans to stay home for the next 10 days leading up to Christmas Eve, a voluntary request that could impact the country's economy and fuel sales.

Cases of Covid-19 have risen quickly since the beginning of the month in Mexico, raising concerns the virus could spread even further during the traditional holiday gatherings central to many Mexicans, from posadas to holiday shopping to end-of-year parties.

In Mexico City the availability of public hospital beds — a key indicator of the severity of the outbreak — is reaching its limit at 65pc of occupancy, with 4,517 out of 6,959 beds in use for the week ended 12 December.

Mexico City's government said a bed occupancy level higher than 50pc would mean the re-closing of shops, restaurants and other public activities that have not done so. Some other restrictions were also put in place, such as requiring restaurants to only offer to-go service.

The government is working on increasing the available beds, said Mexico City mayor Claudia Sheinbaun.

Mexico has 1.25mn cases of Covid-19, ranking it 13th in the world, but has one of the world's highest death tolls, ranked fourth with 113,953 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus resource center.

If the voluntary plea from Lopez Obrador is heeded, fuel sales could take a hit in one of Mexico's highest fuel consumption months. During December 2019 gasoline sales were 733,000 b/d, the third highest level in the past year after April and May.

Regular gasoline sales rose to 693,000 b/d by the week ended 30 October, 12pc lower than the same week of 2019, but up by 61pc from the lowest point of the pandemic at 429,000 b/d, according to the latest weekly data from the energy ministry.

By Sergio Meana