Hours before announcing through his Twitter account that he had tested positive for coronavirus, the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), attended an official event.
The news was received with concern in Corona, Queens, one of the neighborhoods with the most population of Mexican origin.
“We need him to come out well, to be taken care of more than anything else, to seek help,” said a neighbor.
While a street vendor also shared: “Our prayers are with him, for him to recover because he is a human being and apart from representing all of Mexico.”
Lopez Obrador assures that his symptoms are mild and that he is receiving medical treatment.
Just last Friday, the president posted a photo on Twitter of the phone call he had with US President Joe Biden.
In that photo, he was seen accompanied by members of his cabinet, where all of them were without a mask.
AMLO has been criticized for the way he has handled the pandemic in Mexico.
Official figures indicate that the deaths from COVID-19 amount to about 150,000 victims.
“Many do not take it very seriously there, like here. Because they think it is not true, that it is an invention,” underlines a street vendor.
Meanwhile, in Corona Plaza, many say that their relatives in Mexico were infected with the virus.
Daisy Mosso, a local merchant, assures that her grandfather died of COVID and it is time for the President to take the necessary measures to protect himself and his people.
“I think he does have to take his precautions because he’s older and he has to take care of himself a lot,” Mosso says.
At 67 years old, AMLO says he will not stop meeting his political commitments and that he will do so remotely.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, replaces him in her daily press conference.
“That should be clear, he is in full exercise of his functions as the President of the Republic,” said Sánchez Cordero.
In the past, President AMLO declared that he would wait to be vaccinated in March when his turn came according to his age.
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