UPDATE 1-Mexico marks grim coronavirus milestone, passes 100,000 deaths

MEXICO CITY, Nov 19- Mexico, the most populous country in the Spanish-speaking world, has now registered 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, a few days after passing one million infections, official data showed on Thursday. Mexico’s official death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, is among the highest worldwide, and in the…

MEXICO CITY, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Mexico, the most populous

country in the Spanish-speaking world, has now registered

100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, a few days after passing

one million infections, official data showed on Thursday.

Mexico’s official death toll from COVID-19, the respiratorydisease caused by the virus, is among the highest worldwide, andin the Americas lags only the United States and Brazil.

With a population of about 125 million, Mexico accounts forover 7% of confirmed deaths globally, according to a Reutersanalysis. Its mortality rate of nearly 10% is higher than anyother country that has reported more than a million cases.

Mexico’s outbreak has likely been exacerbated by chronicallyunderfunded public hospitals as well as a large informal economyin which millions have to leave home each day to earn a living.

Government officials acknowledge that the count almostcertainly reflects only a fraction of the real death toll.

From the start of the pandemic, the government has eschewedtaking on debt to fund bailouts for businesses or cash paymentsfor workers – a different approach from many other nationsthat sought to cushion the economic blow.

The health ministry’s death toll hit 100,104 on Thursday, up576 from the previous day. Nearly two-thirds of reported deathsso far are men, official data show. The ministry’s own figureslist more than 15,000 additional “suspected” deaths.

The average age of the COVID-19 fatalities is 64. MexicoCity and its densely-packed suburbs – home to more than 20million people – have contributed the most cases.

“In Mexico, the curve has never been flat,” Lia LimonGarcia, a former opposition congresswoman, wrote in a column indaily newspaper El Universal, criticizing what she described asa false “triumphalist tone” of top officials.

“And today no quick reduction in cases can be seen.”

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia in Mexico City; Additionalreporting by Roshan Abraham in Bangalore; editing by GrantMcCool and Stephen Coates)