...Government-owned Pemex leads the world as the company with the most coronavirus deaths. As of Tuesday, 202 employees and five contractors had died from the disease.

The news agency Bloomberg says the number of deaths at Pemex far surpasses that of any other company... 

The difficulties of social distancing on oil rigs, where hundreds of employees sleep in dormitories and crowd together in mess halls, may be a factor in the high number of deaths. But the company was also hesitant to enact protective measures early on, such as reducing its workforce, and many of its employees suffer from health conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.

In May, the Petromex oil workers union denounced crowded working conditions and demanded health and safety protocols be implemented across the board in a letter sent to Pemex chief Octavio Romero by Petromex secretary-general Yolanda Morales Izquierdo.

Since then, the company has begun taking precautionary measures, including sending some oil rig workers home, taking temperature checks, disinfecting work areas and conducting rapid coronavirus testing, and mortality rates appear to be going down as a result...