COVID-19. Situation in Mexico / Weekly Review #43

COVID-19 SITUATION IN MEXICO Weekly Review # 43 February 23, 2021

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

2

DISTRIBUTION OF DEATHS PER STATE: CONFIRMED CASES: 2,043,632

NEW CASES REPORTED: 2,252

DEATHS: 180,536

ACCUMULATED DEATHS PER DAY

Information updated on February 22, 2021 at 19:00 hrs local time.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

3

INCREASE OF CONFIRMED CASES SINCE THE FIRST REPORT MAP WITH THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE INCIDENCE RATE OF ACCUMULATED CASES OF COVID-19 BY ENTITY OF RESIDENCE.

National rate 1584.55

0 to 500 (1 states)

1,5001 to 2,000 (6 states)

501 to 1,000 (7 states)

>2,000 (6 states)

1,001 to 1,500 (12 states)

Elaborated by Prodensa with information from the Health Ministry of Mexico

CORONAVIRUS IN THE WORLD (COVID-19) • As of February 22 2021, globally there have been reported confirmed 111,102,016 cases (338,118 new cases) of COVID-19 and 2,462,911 deaths (7,580 new deaths*). Lethal rate: 2.2%.

• In the last 14 days, the number of new cases accounts for 4% (4,882,171) of the total of accumulated cases. *https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200323-sitrep-63-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=d97cb6dd_2

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

4

TOWARDS THE “NEW NORMAL” INCIDENTS OF CONTAGIONS IN THE POPULATION

BY REGION AS OF FEBRUARY 22

DEATH INCIDENTS IN POPULATION

BY REGION AS OF FEBRUARY 22

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

TOWARDS THE “NEW NORMAL”

The traffic light will be as follows:

5

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

6

KEY POINTS OF THE PRESIDENT ANDRES MANUEL LOPEZ OBRADOR Morning press conference February 17-23, 2021

ELECTRICAL BLACKOUT IN THE COUNTRY The President reaffirmed the need for Mexico to achieve energy self-sufficiency and be prepared for any emergency. He pointed out that all the plants that produce electricity were put to work to upload electricity to the distribution network and counteract the US’s lack of gas.

He stated that having fuel oil and coal helps us to be able to recover electric power service. He said that these plants have not worked for a long time, not because they pollute, but because preference was given to private companies. On the first day of the crisis, these plants generated 75% of what was lost due to said environmental emergency. He said that all the plants are starting up, including the hydroelectric ones.

COVID-19 SITUATION The Secretary of Health, Jorge Alcocer, pointed out that for six weeks the active cases show a clear decrease and of the 32 states, none has more than 70% occupancy. The vaccination advance is 1,733,404 doses applied as of February 22; 456,217-second doses applied to health personnel.

VACCINATION PLAN The Minister of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard, announced the purchase plan for vaccines.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

7

VACCINATION PROGRESS

As of today, 456,217 people have the complete vaccination scheme (2 doses).

In total, 1,733,404 doses had been applied since December 24th. Subsequently, Mexico is applying two different vaccines: PfizerBioNTech and AstraZeneca. The first is being applied to all health workers, and the second to the elderly population.

According to Minister Ebrard, the purchase plan for vaccines is as follows: • Covax: 51.5 M. - It was reported that not a single vaccine had been delivered, a situation brought to the attention of the Security Council, as there is concern that it is taking too long.

• AstraZeneca: 77.4 M. - are being packaged.

• Pfizer: 34.4 M. - Today at 9:05 a.m., another shipment of 511,875 doses arrives.

• CanSino: 35 M. - 2M already arrived in Mexico and are being packaged.

• Sputnik V: 24 M - 200 thousand doses arrived yesterday.

• AstraZeneca of India: 2 M - 870 thousand already arrived.

• Sinovac: 10 M. - 200 thousand doses arrived on Saturday.

TOTAL DOSES COMMITTED: 234.33 M DOSES. 808 thousand doses of Sinovac are expected to arrive on Saturday of this week.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

8

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO BAJA CALIFORNIA With COVID-19 cases continuing to decrease, the State of Baja California continues with sanitary measures considered for the high-risk status, although public authorities are positive that more activities will be able to reopen soon and a potential change in the following weeks to medium risk status. According to the Health Secretary, Alonso Perez Rico, as of February 20th, there are 542 active COVID-19 cases, a decrease of 40.3% from January 20th, when the number hit 1,343 active cases. Patients with respirators have also decreased significantly, with 80 patients currently, compared to 165 on January 20th, a decrease of 48.4%. Hospital occupancy is also down, with 20.37% occupancy as of February 20th. Following the Federal Government´s vaccination plan, the 23,810 doses were divided and applied in several rural areas of Baja California, focusing on the elderly population of +60 years old. It is expected for a new shipment to be received in the following weeks, although the date is yet to be confirmed.

SONORA The State of Sonora continues to see a decrease in COVID-19 active cases, with no more municipalities, considered a maximum risk status. Out of the 72 municipalities that are part of Sonora, nine municipalities are considered high risk, while the rest are considered at the medium or low-risk status. State Health officials are positive regarding the decreasing trend but continue to request the population to reduce mobility and gatherings. On Tuesday, February 22nd, through a virtual event, the State´s Governor, Claudia Pavlovich, along with executives from furniture manufacturer La-Z-Boy, announced the company´s new manufacturing site in San Luis Rio Colorado. This new facility, the company´s first in Sonora and second in Mexico, will employ over 500 workers and will be mainly dedicated for exportation to the US market.

COAHUILA The Ministry of Health of Coahuila began on February 16 day the vaccination against Covid-19 to older adults in the municipalities of Cuatro Cienegas, Ocampo, Sacramento, General Cepeda, and Arteaga, while it continued in Viesca. For the central and northern regions of Coahuila, the process began on Wednesday, February 17. However, they have already been sent to Acuña, Piedras Negras, and some regions of Monclova.

NUEVO LEON The Government of Nuevo Leon agreed to increase the capacity of commercial establishments such as supermarkets, clothing stores, and other businesses, from 30% to 50%, and now, instead of closing at ten at night, they can extend their hours from 5 in the morning to midnight.

The government stressed that these businesses must be closed on Sundays as they have been doing for several weeks due to a rebound in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the relaxation of restriction measures for the holidays and the New Year.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

9

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO TAMAULIPAS Contrary to what is proposed by private schools nationwide, in Tamaulipas, returning to the faceto-face classes in March of this year is not considered an option since doing so would represent a serious risk for the spread of COVID-19 among students and teachers. The Union of Parents of the South of Tamaulipas indicated that they recently conducted a census with 15 thousand parents in the country, where 97% recognized that they would not send their children to classrooms if their health is not guaranteed. In this sense, the Union specified that they estimate that it will be up to two years when they return to the classrooms that were closed in Tamaulipas on March 18, 2020.

AGUASCALIENTES With data until February 21, ISSEA announced the recovery of 564 patients in the last week, so since the beginning of the pandemic, 15,759 people have received their medical discharge after overcoming the COVID-19 in Aguascalientes. The Ministry of Health announced that general hospitalization and beds with ventilators are less than 50% occupied. More than a month after the COVID-19 vaccination campaign has started in the entity, health workers from the private sector and private Doctors want it to be clarified when they will have to apply the vaccine. Nothing has been notified about it other than a declaration that they will be vaccinated. They still cannot be given an exact date because everything depends on the Federal Government’s shipments. If they are omitted, health workers in the private sector will have to wait to be vaccinated by age groups, explained the Minister of Health.

JALISCO Until February 20, the vaccine had already been applied to 99.7% of health personnel. Vaccination of older adults in the first 23 municipalities considered vulnerable reached 44.2%, applying 25,931 doses of the 58,690 that were assigned to the State of the Astra-Zeneca laboratory. From the increase in beds as part of the hospital reconversion, the epidemic curves began to decrease.

The State’s Central and Western Sierra regions have 45 and 30.8% percentages, respectively, with beds occupied in Intensive Care Units (ICU). Governor Enrique Alfaro pointed out that the disease is on the decline, at the same time that he launches a call to the Jalisco society not to lower its guard.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

10

MEASURES TAKEN

BY STATES IN MEXICO

QUERETARO Hundreds of the Queretaro population are going to municipalities and communities near Guanajuato to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the face of their despair over this pandemic.

This Friday at a morning press conference, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pointed out as “shameful” jumping in line for the COVID-19 vaccine and commented on these cases. He urged Mexicans to respect the guide document’s schedule that contains the national public policies for vaccination against COVID-19. This migration by vaccines was already foreseen by the Minister of Health of Guanajuato, Daniel Diaz Marinez. During the delivery of the doses for the northeast area of that State, he pointed out the need to request a voter ID to verify the area in which each beneficiary lives.

GUANAJUATO More than 600 thousand adults over 60 years of age have yet to receive the COVID vaccine, and there is no date for the Federal Government to send more doses to the entity. According to the 2020 Population and Housing census, published a few weeks ago by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi), 681,374 adults over 60 years of age should be immunized against the new coronavirus. The vaccination campaign in Guanajuato began in the northeast.

In new municipalities, more than 42 thousand doses applied were distributed. The state agency also reported that the second dose of Pfizer’s vaccine was applied to 12,235 workers in the health sector. There are still another 12,000 to receive the booster to achieve immunity greater than 90%.

So far, 95.6% of the 40,619 vaccines that arrived in the State on February 14 have been applied.

Guanajuato’s Ministry of Health confirmed that there is no date set for new batches of the COVID vaccine to arrive at the entity so far.

STATE OF MEXICO As well as in Mexico City, the government announced that the epidemiological stoplight will change to orange, and some businesses and churches may open but with more health measures.

CDMX The General Director of the Digital Agency commented that INE credentials pictures are being taken to keep better control of the vaccination process. Many people are trying to receive the vaccine without being from the locality in which the process is being carried out. The head of Mexico’s City government, Claudia Sheinbaum, mentioned that although the City changed to orange color due to a decrease in the growth rate of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations, it is important to continue with strict health measures and social distancing. Some stores and businesses (restaurants, gyms, sports centers, and churches) are allowed to open but in a very cautious way. Bars, night centers, bowling, movies theaters, museums, galleries, spas, among others, continue to be closed.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

11

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY POWER AND GAS OUTAGES AFFECTED 70% OF COMPANIES IN MEXICO

Nearly 60% of companies in Mexico have stopped their production lines due to the impact of power cuts and natural gas shortages, while 68% of companies stated that this crisis will have a negative impact on their business, revealed by a survey by the Business Coordinating Council (CCE).

Meanwhile, 70% of the companies in Mexico have been affected by the energy cuts, highlighted the Energy Commission of the CCE, after applying a survey to 482 companies that belong to the business organizations, which was carried out between last Tuesday, February 16, in the afternoon and Wednesday, February 17.

When asked about the type of impact, 52.7% of the companies responded that they were affected by the power outage; 3.94% by the lack of gas; 15.15% said the lack of electricity and gas; and 28.2% said none.

Nuevo Leon topped the list of those affected by the energy problem, where 43.9% of the companies reported impacts, followed by Mexico City with 16%; the State of Mexico with 14.7%; followed by Coahuila with 14.32% and Chihuahua with 13.2% of the companies.

The Mexican Confederation of Employers (Coparmex) estimated that 1.5 billion pesos have been lost due to the blackouts registered in the country and called on federal deputies to reflect on the amendments to the Electricity Industry Law. “The recent blackouts and the growing failures in the national electric system that are affecting not only companies but also thousands of families, force us to reflect on whether the intention of reforming the current Law of the Electric Industry will not end up harming Mexicans to benefit a single company, in this case, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE),” it stated in a press release.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

12

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY

AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR The automakers KIA, Audi, Honda, Ford, Nissan, BMW, Toyota, and the largest glass manufacturer, Vitro, temporarily suspended operations at some of their plants in Mexico due to the shortage of natural gas and power outages.

The associations representing the automotive industry sent a letter to President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to request his urgent intervention to reestablish natural gas and electricity supply in Mexico.

The letter details that the Mexican automotive sector generates 18.2 percent of the country’s manufacturing GDP, with a positive trade balance of over 77 billion dollars, more than the oil sector, remittance income, and the tourism balance combined.

KIA suspended operations on Thursday, February 18, at its assembly plant in Pesqueria, Nuevo Leon, due to gas and electricity shortages, confirmed sources close to the company.

Honda also scheduled a three-day technical stoppage at its plant in Celaya, Guanajuato, and Toyota announced that its plants in Guanajuato and Baja California will also have technical stoppages and reduced production shifts.

Vitro reported that since February 15, three of its automotive glass factories in Mexico have temporarily suspended operations due to the loss of electricity and were also notified of possible reductions in the supply of natural gas.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

13

People healed from coronavirus

87.9 Millions

Vaccinated people in the world

212,146,227

GOOD NEWS A SINGLE DOSE OF THE PFIZER AND BIONTECH VACCINE REDUCED COVID-19 INFECTIONS BY 85 PERCENT A single dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine reduced COVID-19 infections by 85 percent in a study conducted in Israel, reinforcing the UK’s decision to speed up immunizations by delaying the second dose.

According to the report published in the medical journal The Lancet, among healthcare workers who received the injection, symptomatic infections were reduced by that percentage between 15 to 28 days after the first dose, compared with those who were not vaccinated.

While most workers received a second dose on schedule - about three weeks after the first - the booster would only have started to kick in at the end of the study, so one dose’s effects were essentially looked at. Israeli researchers studied the Pfizer vaccine’s actual effects on staff at Sheba Medical Center, the country’s largest hospital. Although it was not a standard clinical trial like those used to establish the efficacy of drugs and vaccines, it provides preliminary support to health officials who recommend postponing the second dose to quickly give the first to as many people as possible.

Countries that delay second doses need to “understand the importance of the decision to administer a single vaccine, and we showed that it has quite substantial protection,” said Arnon Afek, Deputy General Director of Sheba Medical Center and co-author of the study.

The UK currently allows up to 12 weeks between the two doses. After rejecting a similar policy of lengthening

the interval between doses, US public health advisers consider extending the time between the first and second doses, Bloomberg News reported.

“Early reductions in COVID-19 rates support the delay of the second dose in countries facing vaccine shortages and few resources,” the researchers concluded in the Lancet analysis.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

14

CLIENT’S GOOD NEWS MONTERREY FACILITY RECOGNIZED FOR ITS COVID-19 PREVENTION ACTIVITIES The Matthews Memorialization Monterrey Plant, which manufactures caskets and some bronze memorialization products, was recently recognized by a local news station run by the University of Monterrey for its COVID-19 prevention protocols and communications. The Monterrey facility is the largest Memorialization Group plant with over 500 employees and has been challenged by the spread of COVID-19 cases in the local area. At the beginning of early last summer, the plant leadership has been keenly focused on creative ways to implement strong COVID-19 protocols, including communications to reach employees while they are at work, traveling to/from work, and as much as possible, outside of work. As part of this communication campaign, the team at Monterrey has worked with PRODENSA PR & Communications team to monitor and publish COVID-19 prevention information on social media and currently has more than 700 followers on its Facebook page created for this purpose. The activities have proven successful, as the facility maintained a low rate of infection since its initial outbreak last summer. Recently, the University of Monterrey recognized Matthews for the company’s efforts to keep our employees safe. Monterrey was first recognized for implementing the TOTEM system, an automated system to provide temperature checks.

Later, this news was republished by El Financiero and Players of Life, two major media networks in Mexico. More recently, Monterrey was featured for the innovative use of social media to influence behaviors inside and outside the plant. According to the news story, ‘Very few companies encourage their employees to prevent COVID-19 through their social networks. One of them is Matthews, a foreign investment company that manufactures coffins. We were able to verify that employees are continuously reminded to prevent risks and avoid further spreading the virus.’

‘With this, we see the great commitment of companies to continue working, maintaining safety and conditions for their employees.’

Shown Above: Examples of recent social media posts created as part of the Monterrey facility’s social media campaign to promote safe COVID-19 protocols.

COVID-19 Situation in Mexico

15

RECOMMENDATIONS HOW TO WEAR FACEMASKS Facemasks are a critical step to help prevent people from getting and spreading COVID-19. A cloth mask offers some protection to you as well as protecting those around you. Wear a facemask and take everyday preventive actions in public settings and mass transportation, at events and gatherings, and anywhere you will be around other people.

EHS

• It is recommended that people age 2 and older should wear masks in public.

Children should NOT wear facemasks under age 2 or anyone who has trouble breathing.

• Facemasks should be worn in addition to staying at least 6 feet apart, especially if indoors around people who don’t live with you.

• If someone in your household is infected, people in the household should take precautions, including wearing facemasks to avoid transmission to others.

Wear your Mask Correctly • Wash your hands or use hand sanitizer before putting on your mask.

• Put the facemask over your nose and mouth and secure it under your chin.

• Fit the facemask snugly against the sides of your face, slipping the loops over your ears or tying the strings behind your head.

• If you have to adjust your mask continually, it doesn’t fit properly, and you might need to find a different mask type or brand.

Make sure you can breathe easily.

DAVID ANTUNEZ Environmental, Health, and Safety Director.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS LABOR

OCCUPATIONAL RISK INSURANCE PREMIUM This week is the deadline for companies to complete the annual process to determine the occupational risk insurance premium. Although we are facing an ordinary annual activity this year, due to the pandemic, it becomes relevant because the companies must review our records of all occupational risks last year, including those that ended during the pandemic. Therefore this year, it is important to pay special attention to the disabilities derived by COVID-19 to ensure that they are handled as a general disease and not as an occupational risk.

ALVARO GARCIA HR Director

THE REPUTATION OF YOUR COMPANY MATTERS NOW MORE THAN EVER! Choose wisely your spokesperson. Identify the most reliable and charismatic person in the company and work on a script, this person will represent your companies on media interviews and Institutional Affairs.

YOELLE ROJAS Public Affairs & Communications Director

www.prodensa.com