Mexican health officials asked the public to limit non-essential travel outside of the country as other nations also began to restrict their borders due to the ongoing spread of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The announcement comes as Mexico just announced the confirmation of 15 new cases through testing in a 24-hour span. The current total in Mexico is 41 confirmed cases and 155 possible cases where testing is pending.

The announcement came just one day after Mexico’s Undersecretary of Health Hugo Lopez Gatell confirmed the first considerable jump in cases from 15 to 26, Breitbart Texas reported. Currently, there are no confirmed cases in the border state of Tamaulipas, but four have been confirmed in the neighboring state of Nuevo Leon.

In regard to travel, health officials asked Mexican nationals to avoid overseas travel unless it is necessary. For those that are currently out of the country, Mexico is asking them to take available commercial routes since the logistical issues are expected to continue for several weeks. Health officials also asked travelers to notify them at Mexican airports of any upper respiratory illness such as coughing, sneezing, fever, and other possible symptoms.

The most recent figures released by Mexico’s Health Secretariat revealed that there is a total of 142,539 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide and there have been 5,393 fatalities. Even though the epidemic started in China, currently most of the new cases worldwide are being reported out of Europe, Lopez Gatell said.

“In Mexico, we have 41 confirmed cases since the epidemic started,” the health official said. “We have been able to rule out 404 cases though lab testing and currently have 155 suspicious cases that are being looked at in laboratories.”

According to Lopez Gatell, as more cases reach continue to appear, health officials are facing some challenges in tracking down individuals that the patients came in contact with. Most of the current cases in Mexico come from individuals who traveled to the U.S., Europe, or Asia. Health officials recently began to extend vacation periods at schools and limit government-sponsored mass gatherings as a way to limit exposure.

Despite the government warnings, several large-scale music festivals like 2020 Pal Norte in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, and 2020 Vive Latino in Mexico City carried on.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.