MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador returned to his morning news conference Monday after a week in self-isolation for his second coronavirus infection.
The president used his relatively quick recovery to point out the milder symptoms of the omicron variant, which quickly became dominant in the region, although he didn’t explicitly say that was the variant he had. .
“It is demonstrable that this variant does not have the same gravity as the previous one, the delta,” said López Obrador. “In the symptoms and also in the recovery time.”
López Obrador was first infected in January last year. He does not wear a protective mask during his daily press conferences in front of staff and reporters. He had appeared hoarse at his press conference last Monday, called it a cold, but said he would be tested. Later that day, he confirmed he was infected.
The 68-year-old president had received three doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
He credited Mexico’s vaccination program for keeping hospitalizations low even as new infections spiked.
Mexico has recorded more than 300,000 test-confirmed COVID-19 deaths during the pandemic, but with an extremely low testing rate, the government estimates the true death toll is close to 460,000.
