Powerful quake in southern Mexico kills at least six

Quake adding to virus woes

Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum also activated response protocols, adding that two people had been injured. Apart from some building facades falling, she said there had been "no major incidents" reported.

The earthquake was felt in several parts of the capital of 8.8 million people which in 2017 was hit by a 7.1 magnitude quake that left 360 people dead throughout the country.

That same year, 96 people died after an 8.1 magnitude quake struck the south of the country, with Oaxaca the worst affected state.

The quake has hit at a time when Mexico is already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

It has suffered more than 23,000 COVID-19 deaths -- the second most in Latin America -- and 191,410 cases.

On Tuesday the country recorded its highest number of cases in a 24-hour period, with 6,288 new infections, according to the Ministry of Health.

Medical staff were evacuated from some hospitals in the capital alongside patients, although those suffering from the coronavirus remained isolated inside the buildings, alongside their caretakers.

"All those that are in an area with COVID patients remain inside, only those of us who weren't there at the time" have come out, said Jaime Gomez, a nurse at a hospital caring for coronavirus patients.

Many of the people that fled into the streets of the capital were not wearing face masks.

"With all the virus problems and now the tremors, and I've just lost one child and the other is ill, so imagine (how I'm feeling)," a tearful Maria Teresa Duran, 80, told AFP.

AFP