•CERTIFICATES: The municipality of Ecatepec in the greater Mexico City area, one of the hardest hit areas by the pandemic in the country, stopped issuing death certificates in at least half of its offices since December due to municipal office workers getting infected with coronavirus themselves.
•NUMBERS: As of late Wednesday, Ecatepec reported 28,998 coronavirus cases and 4,112 deaths. With a population of 1.6 million, Ecatepec ranks fourth among Mexican municipalities by absolute coronavirus deaths, according to figures kept by Mexico’s council of science (CONACYT).
•CLOSED: “(The office) is closed my friend. It is closed because the official in charge is sick with Covid. His quarantine is about to end, but that’s why we are closed”, said Pedro Salmerón, a municipal worker at the San Cristobal civil registry, one of the municipal offices closed.
•WAITS: The municipality of Ecatepec has a total of eight civil registries and at least four of them are currently closed according to REFORMA newspaper. Family members have been asked to wait until March. It is unclear how authorities will measure local excess deaths when certificates are delayed.
