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From: TT
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Photo: Briana Sanchez / AP / TT
The prisoners have moved in to help deal with the dead in El Paso Texas. However, the image shows a social worker testing for covid in the city.
Funeral Parlor on wheels, a congress hall converted into a hospital and prisoners who tend to the dead. Catastrophic scenes take place near the border with Mexico, in a city that has become one of the hardest hit by the crown in the United States.
Initially, all the covid patients were housed in a floor of the UMC Hospital. Then another was needed. After that, tents were set up in the parking lot where patients could receive care. In the next step, a congress center was transformed into a field hospital. Some covid patients in need of intensive care have been transferred to other cities.
Texas was the first U.S. state to reach one million confirmed COVID-19 cases. And one of the hardest hit areas in the state, and across the United States, is El Paso. The city on the border with Mexico is usually associated with the sun and vast desert landscapes, but now it is the catastrophic situation of covid that is in the headlines.
“Dark times”
El Paso, with its 680,000 residents, has more people hospitalized for covid-19 than many other places in the country. This involves more than 1,700 patients, of whom about 315 are in intensive care. The city has more than 76,000 confirmed cases, which is more than countries like Ireland and Denmark have.
– These are dark times. It can be best summarized as fatigue. And frustration, “Ogechika Alozie, medical director of the Del Sol Medical Center in the city, told CNN.
Hospitals and health workers are on their knees. And morgues can no longer house the dead. To date, more than 800 people have died from covid-19. Therefore, ten mobile morgue, refrigerated trucks, have been incorporated to ease the burden.
Summoned prisoners
But there are also not enough staff to take care of all the bodies. In search of manpower, the city has turned to local jails. For $ 2 an hour, volunteer inmates (it is emphasized that these are people convicted of relatively minor crimes) help load the bodies into refrigerated trucks.
Prisoners work in protective equipment, but critical voices have still been raised that trained personnel do not attend to the bodies of people who died in covid-19.
– If there are no staff who can help and there are volunteers, then it is our only option, even if they are interns, says local judge Ricardo Samaniego to KFOX14.
However, the hope is that the Texas National Guard will stand down and do the job for him.
Disagreement on measures
Although the situation is becoming increasingly serious, local decision-makers have been unable to agree on what measures should be introduced to slow the spread of the infection.
Judge Samaniego ordered the closure, but the mayor disagrees because he is concerned about how families will be able to survive economically. Police have also announced that they do not intend to work towards a shutdown. The issue has now been resolved in court, which ruled that no local leadership can overturn the decision of Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
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