Mexico has reached "the peak moment" of its coronavirus outbreak, officials said, as the country recorded its largest one-day rise in cases so far, BBC News reports. 

More than 2,409 new cases of the virus were confirmed on Thursday - the first time this figure has exceeded 2,000.

The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now more than 40,000.

The grim milestone comes amid preparations to ease lockdown measures and reopen the economy, particularly factories near the border with the US.

Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell - an epidemiologist and Mexico's coronavirus tsar - described this as "the most difficult moment of the first wave of the epidemic".

He said that the country "could not relax measures" in place to stem the spread of the virus, and instead needs to embrace a "new normal" to avoid another wave of infections.

News.Az