World Cup host Jalisco, Mexico faces mandatory mask wearing in schools due to health alert due to measles outbreak
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The Mexican state of Jalisco issued a health alert and made the use of face masks mandatory in schools as the state capital, a major host city for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, is hit by a measles outbreak.
The measures follow an epidemiological alert issued by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) earlier this week on the spread of the preventable disease across the Americas, especially in Mexico, which leads the region with 1,981 cases confirmed by authorities this year and more than 5,200 suspected cases.
Jalisco is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 1,163 confirmed cases this year and 2,092 suspected cases, according to the Mexican government.
Mexico’s measles outbreak began last year in the northern state of Chihuahua, when a Mennonite child fell ill while visiting relatives in an area of ​​Texas that has suffered from the outbreak. Cases have surged in Mennonite communities — which have high rates of vaccine hesitancy — and have spread across Mexico in the country’s largest outbreak in decades.
Danger of outbreak in World Cup
Scientists say rising outbreaks in the hemisphere are linked to declining vaccination rates. Mauricio RodrÃguez, a microbiology professor at Mexico’s National Autonomous University who focuses on the pandemic, said cases have increased in Mexico especially because many communities in the country do not have a full vaccination program against measles.
He said the risk increases in the summer because the United States, Mexico and Canada — where measles cases are rising — host visitors from around the world.
A Toronto doctor is warning about emergency room capacity ahead of the upcoming FIFA World Cup games in Canada, which are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of soccer fans to Toronto and Vancouver.
“With the World Cup, there are going to be a lot of people coming from outside (Mexico) and that represents a risk of even more outbreaks starting in other places,” Rodriguez said.
Guadalajara is one of the main venues in Mexico for football tournaments.
In an effort to curb cases, Jalisco health officials announced Thursday that masks will be required in Guadalajara schools in seven specific neighborhoods for the next 30 days.
Jalisco was the first Mexican state to impose such measures as medical groups urged the local government to take immediate action, the country’s first public health mandate following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Classes were recently suspended in 15 schools in Jalisco and the central state of Aguascalientes due to the outbreak of the highly contagious airborne virus.
Infection control efforts
On Thursday, students and teachers in areas around Guadalajara donned masks in classrooms and formed long lines through vaccination centers set up in local government buildings.
Angel Iván Soto Méndez and his family were among those waiting to get vaccinated and said they had already made preparations for their children to go to school with masks and disinfectant.
“If everyone doesn’t get vaccinated, there’s going to be infection everywhere,” he said.
Canada lost its measles-free status in November and the US and Mexico are at risk of facing the same fate. Both governments have requested a two-month extension to try to control the outbreak, although in January the Trump administration withdrew from the World Health Organization, under whose umbrella PAHO operates.
In the first three weeks of this year, 1,031 additional cases of measles were confirmed in seven countries in the Americas and no deaths were reported – a figure 43 times higher than the number recorded in the same period last year – Paho said In a statement on Wednesday.
The Mexican government has spent several weeks encouraging the population to get vaccinated against measles, which can be prevented with two doses of the vaccine, and has announced the launch of vaccination sites in places such as airports and bus stations.
