Live Covid-19 Updates – The New York Times

Soon, the virus was storming the vast, gridded passages of the Central de Abasto, and Mr. Arriagas father fell ill, too. Dozens in the market died, perhaps hundreds. Not even the government knows for sure.

There is this moment when you start to see people dying, and the stress begins to destroy you, Arriaga, 30 said. It made me realize what a trapped animal feels like.

The market became the epicenter of the epicenter, the teeming heart of a neighborhood that has registered more Covid deaths than any other part of the capital, which is itself the center of the national crisis.

In Iztapalapa, it was clear from the start that the virus would strike hard. Of all the districts in the Mexican capital, it is the most densely populated, with some two million people packed into 45 square miles of heaving commerce and virtually uninterrupted construction.

Poverty circumscribes life, with chronic water shortages. Hundreds of thousands live, day by day, far more fearful of hunger than any virus.

Over the months, a deep-seated skepticism among people like Mr. Arriaga turned to shock, and eventually to resignation, as their neighbors, friends and loved ones died and their neighborhood became ground zero for the outbreak.

The virus left few lives untouched in Iztapalapa, if not by illness then by economic distress. Starvation haunted people who had never considered themselves poor, and rituals that had bound the community for generations were scrapped, including one of the biggest Christian celebrations in Latin America, which was canceled for the first time in more than 150 years.

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Live Covid-19 Updates - The New York Times