Mexico’s president to announce plan Wednesday for reopening businesses

MEXICO CITY, Mexico — President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is set to announce a plan for the “gradual” resumption of economic activities on Wednesday.

It comes after Mexico’s top advisory body on the coronavirus pandemic says it will issue guidelines that would allow for the re-opening of construction, mining, and car and truck manufacturing.

The General Health Council said that following a Tuesday meeting it had decided to classify those industries as “essential activities” that are allowed to continue working during a lockdown aimed at fighting the spread of the coronavirus.

The council did not set a timeline for when the reopening would begin. But it said that by June 1, a ‘stoplight’ system should be in place to tell local populations what activities are allowed.

The council also said that restrictions on schools and businesses should be lifted in townships that have no cases of Covid-19 and whose neighboring townships also have no cases.