Respetando La VirgenZIHta

I appreciate these regular updates, I've been following them for a bit now. Do you see any upward trend which may make for sudden changes in restrictions? I'm getting close to coming down for a week there, like in the next couple days, to beat Christmas crowds. Just trying to get a feel for stability so as to avoid surprises as much as possible.

While I see over a dozen cases registered in the past week, they don't appear to be overwhelming the hospital but instead mostly quarantining at home. Comparing the data from three weeks ago to the week before last, there has been a decline in cases of -6.88 per 100,000, though I expect that to change shortly to reflect recent cases.

The big unknown are the tourists themselves. So when they do practice safe sanitary protocols that include proper mask wearing and social distancing then we don't feel much anxiety locally. But when they arrive in crowds on buses all huddled together walking down the street, half without facemasks, not practicing social distancing, then a certain feeling of trepidation arises. Foreigners who look like gringos who walk around without facemasks scare the bejeezus out of us because the USA is the world's epicenter for the virus.

I've been monitoring the numbers around the nation, and while the big cities have their localized problems in numerous of their neighborhoods and there is currently a rise overall due to increased testing, and hospitals in Mexico City have reached around 70% saturation, nowhere are the daily numbers as high as they were a month ago when there would be over a hundred new cases daily in several cities. While I've only been to Acapulco on numerous occasions this year, I couldn't help but notice the increase in adherence to the sanitary protocols. Same all up and down our coast. And from watching news reports around the country I get the idea more people are complying than ever. Though some communities and even entire states continue with severe restrictions, many are operating close to normal.

Mass transit seems to be one of the main spreader problems as well as indoor venues such as bars and restaurants. Closing the churches including the Basílica de Guadalupe for Día de Guadalupe probably saved a few hundred thousand more people from getting ill and thousands more from dying.

Mexico continues on its unique course, not following protocols of other countries but instead continuing its own path, adjusting its response to our very unique sociological, cultural and geographical conditions. I think we're doing as well as can be expected considering where we started.

Gracias por las canciones de Lola Beltran, una cantante muy, muy maravillosa!

Con mucho gusto, Susan. Lola fue la más grande de todas las cantantes mexicanas y siempre la llevaremos en nuestros corazones. Todavía nos hace llorar con su talento y emoción.