Nearly half of the competitors at the Miss Mexico pageant have tested positive for COVID-19, despite all submitting a negative test before the contest, a health official has said.

The health secretary for the northern Mexico border state of Chihuahua, Eduardo Fernandez Herrera, said 14 out of 32 contestants tested positive for the virus.

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One other person who was not taking part in the competition also contracted COVID-19.

Mr Herrera told local media all of the aspiring beauty queens submitted negative tests before the pageant in Chihuahua.

A source from the contest told Mexican newspaper Reforma the coronavirus outbreak began with the participants from Zacatecas and Yucatan, and a couple of days later, it spread among the girls of Chihuahua, San Luis Potosi, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Queretaro and others.

The source also told the paper that although many of them had a cough and a temperature, organisers asked them “not to complain”.

Competitors were tested at the pageant after authorities received an anonymous tip that one person was in fact infected.

The contest was shortened and brought to an end on Saturday after Karolina Vidales from the state of Michoacan was crowned as the winner and Mexico’s representative at the Miss World competition.

The country has recorded a total of 2,549,862 COVID cases and 233,958 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

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