Mexico’s coronavirus czar has been hospitalised over the past five days for Covid-19 treatment but is recovering well, a health official said, as the country marks the one-year anniversary of its first confirmed infection.

Lopez-Gatell was admitted for “early hospitalisation” last Wednesday after his medical team determined he required supplemental oxygen, said Ruy Lopez, head of the National Centre of Preventative Programs and Disease Control (Cenaprece).

“He has progressed well and we hope he can be released from the hospital unit tomorrow,” Lopez told a news conference.

Mexico has registered 185,715 fatalities from the coronavirus, giving it the world’s fourth-highest death toll from the pandemic, according to a Reuters tally.