MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico is poised to overtake Britain as the country with the third-highest coronavirus death toll as the pandemic reaches new milestones in Latin America and threatens to disrupt efforts to reopen the economy.

The unwanted record will place Mexico behind Brazil, Latin America’s largest and most populous nation, and the United States. More than 91,000 people have died in Brazil and the death toll in the United States has surpasses 152,000.

Mexico on Thursday recorded 639 additional fatalities to bring its confirmed coronavirus toll to 46,000, with 416,179 confirmed cases. The United Kingdom has recorded 46,084 deaths and 303,913 cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Mexican officials say the spread of the pandemic is likely far more extensive than official figures reflect.

The rising tolls have cemented Latin America’s status as one of the epicenters of the virus as cases in the region have doubled over the past month to over 4.7 million infections.

While the United Kingdom appears to have put the brakes on the virus, the pandemic shows few signs of slowing in Mexico, which has been trying to restart the economy since late May.

“We’re opening when we’re not yet ready to open,” said Rosa Maria del Angel, head of Infectomics and Molecular Pathogenesis at Mexico’s National Polytechnic Institute.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who angered some health advocates by refusing to wear a face mask in public, on Friday said Mexico plans to go ahead with celebrations in the capital’s massive Zocalo Square to mark the Independence Day.

The Sept. 16 ceremony that celebrates a historic call to revolt known as “El Grito” would be “socially distanced”, Lopez Obrador told his daily morning press conference.

“Faced with adversity, with epidemics, with floods, earthquakes, bad governments, we always go out (to celebrate),” he said. “Now we’re going to continue going out.”

Lopez Obrador has chastised news organizations for reporting Mexico’s rise up the ranks of the global death tally, saying the toll per capita is a fairer representation.

(Reporting by Adriana Barrera; Additional reporting by Daina Beth Solomon; Writing by Drazen Jorgic; Editing by Aurora Ellis)

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