In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to ease lockdown restrictions, the federal government of Mexico established a bimonthly traffic-light monitoring system aligned with health protocols to guide Mexico’s states through the country’s reopening plan. Below is a map for the period of August 31, 2020, to September 13, 2020, indicating the COVID-19 risk level in each of Mexico’s 32 states.

This chart presents the traffic light status of each state, and, as applicable, variations between federal and local traffic light statuses based on publications of the federal and local publications.

In this edition of the traffic light report, the color yellow is present at the federal level in 10 states. Yellow status signifies the following information:

• Vulnerable employees. Depending on an individual’s medical condition, a person can return to work in non-COVID-19 areas. Employers of individuals at high risk for COVID-19 must adhere to issued by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, and the Mexican Institute of Social Security on July 27, 2020, in the Official Gazette of the Federation.

• Resuming activities. All work activities must continue to follow health safety protocols, as well as activities in public spaces and in enclosed spaces with reduced capacity.

• School activities. Currently, there are no in-person school activities. (Green-light status is required for a return to school.)

With the exception of Colima (at the federal level), the rest of the states are marked either orange or yellow, a development that represents a gradual improvement in COVID-19 conditions. In the coming weeks, the emergence of green traffic lights could represent a full reopening and return to pre-COVID-19 status.

O. Iván Andrade Castelán is a law clerk in the Mexico City office of Ogletree Deakins.