Overpopulation and overcrowding in the poorest neighborhoods of Mexico City, the largest and most populated metropolis in America, were determining factors for the expansion and contagion of thousands of people, where poor neighborhoods and peripheries were the most affected by COVID-19. Santa Fe, Mexico City, August 29th, 2020
Several weeks have passed since millions of people went into confinement in their homes due to the pandemic decreed worldwide. Without being able to go out, most of them see their days go by in depression, fear and anxiety in many cases. Tlatelolco, Mexico City, May 25th, 2020
A sick man waits outside the IMSS Clinic 27 in Mexico City to receive his medications. The clinic has been intended solely for the treatment of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, so many hundreds of patients with other diseases have had to wait to be treated because there are no spaces in public hospitals for them. Tlatelolco, Mexico City, 2020
A Mexico City government worker walks the streets spraying with a disinfectant liquid what he finds in his path. These types of measures were implemented trying to minimize the risks for the inhabitants of the country's capital. Mexico City, June 1st, 2020
A patient from clinic 27 of the IMSS is transferred inside a capsule used to isolate patients with symptoms associated with COVID-19
Mexico City, June 1st, 2020
Tiredness and emotional exhaustion are experienced every day in the surroundings of the clinics and hospitals that especially care for the sick with COVID-19 is dramatic because family members wait outside for hours and days to receive news from patients, that upon entering, they enter isolation. Mexico City, June 1st, 2021
In the list of nursing staff, the large number of patients admitted to the IMSS Clinic 27 who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 is observed. Inside the hospital, beds are scarce and patients increase during the months of more contagion during the pandemic.
Before entering the room where patients diagnosed with COVID-19 are cared for, it is very important that medical and nursing staff comply with a rigorous safety protocol in every action they take: their lives depend on doing it correctly. Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
A patient in serious condition enters Clinic 27 of the IMSS. Inside hospitals, there are dramatic scenes on a daily basis: medical staff treats the most serious COVID-19 patients (most of these patients are seniors).
Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
Deaths from COVID-19 begin to be counted by the thousands throughout the country: from hospitals and clinics (such as 27), every day, you see the transfer of corpses and the presence of vehicles of funeral companies.
Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
The nurse has just finished her work shift at clinic 27 of the IMSS; She (along with her companions and colleagues) is in charge of the care of patients diagnosed with COVID-19. On her face, you can see the marks of the protective equipment that she wears for several hours a day. Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
The family member of a patient exchanges information with the medical staff of clinic 27 of the IMSS. The letters that the nurses helped to exchange between patients and their families became a powerful hope because, from the exchange of letters, many of them (patients and relatives) gained confidence and gained strength to emerge stronger within the tragedy. Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
Jorge (one of the nurses assigned to care for patients with COVID-19) observes the letters and messages that have been written by those who, outside, await the return of their patients. Thanks to the work of him and other colleagues, many families were able to have information, communication and hope in the most difficult moments of the pandemic. Mexico City, July 4th, 2020
Mr. Arturo Nieto leaves accompanied by his son Arturo after having been hospitalized for three weeks in the intensive care area; his family has brought him the superhero shirt that he wears (since they consider him a very powerful one after he has defeated the disease that continues to claim victims in the most complicated month of the pandemic). Mexico City, May 27th, 2020
Kena Nieto, the daughter of one of the hospitalized patients, embraces Jorge, the nurse who helped her in recent weeks to communicate with her father who was ill and fighting for his life after being infected with COVID-19. Mexico City, August 6th, 2020
Selene Velasco has just returned home after being hospitalized for several weeks. Her body still shows the consequences of the disease: she gets tired quickly and breathes with difficulty, but she feels that the universe gave her a new opportunity to live. Mexico City, August 2nd, 2020
This small altar was made by the daughter of Mrs. Enriqueta: you can see the photos of her parents when they were young, and some elements of their religious beliefs (a mixture of Santeria and Catholicism), to which they attribute the recovery of mother after having suffered COVID-19. Mexico City August 2nd, 2020
Mrs. Enriqueta Hernández and her husband Manuel Zaragoza have been reunited after several weeks of living apart due to illness. As a sign of the love that has united them for more than 40 years of marriage, they dance and hug each other to celebrate their love story. Mexico City, August 2nd, 2020
Claudia Arce looks at the album of letters and photographs that she made with her husband Gonzalo over thirty years of marriage. After they had been admitted together after catching COVId-19 and after celebrating their wedding anniversary in the hospital, Claudia was able to recover but, unfortunately, Gonzalo was not. Now, with deep sadness, she looks at and remembers life before everything changed after the pandemic.
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, State of Mexico, August 29th, 2020
After the end of the confinement after almost three months in Mexico City, the inhabitants return to the streets with the hope that the situation will improve. In the photograph, a boy flies a black papalote (kite) in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (in Tlatelolco), a few meters from the IMSS clinic 27, where many people still struggle between life and death. Mexico City, June 3th, 2020
