Now, weeks later, she wears a necklace with her ashes.
“He was referring to the world,” said Jessica, who is from Hidalgo County in South Texas, recalling her 27-year-old brother. “I just wish it wasn’t him.”
Health experts say there is no evidence that the bodies are contagious after death, but the moment speaks to fear and concern in Hidalgo County, where health officials say Covid-19 is wreaking havoc on communities. Hospitals began to reach capacity earlier this month in the Rio Grande Valley, which has become the main access point in Texas.
“It is a tsunami that we are seeing right now,” said Dr. Federico Vallejo, a critical care pulmonologist. Vallejo said he is treating 50 to 60 patients a day. Sometimes he sees 70. Typically, a critical care doctor sees 15-20 patients during a rotation for a critical care doctor, according to Vallejo.
Vallejo said walking through the hospital corridors is a “massive shock,” and he is concerned about the mental health of his colleagues who are overwhelmed by the large number of patients. “It is not easy to handle something like this.”
The situation has become so dire that Hidalgo County officials this week threatened to criminally prosecute people who are not in quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19. Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez issued a home shelter order for all residents beginning Wednesday.
The order includes a curfew, travel limitations and facial coverage requirements and occurs when county hospitals have reached capacity, Cortez said.
The state’s response
Dr. Peter Hotez of Baylor College of Medicine said southern states like Texas and Florida are seeing an increase in deaths because “hospitals are overwhelmed.”
While Abbott implemented a mask requirement for almost all Texans in early July, he maintained a ban on local officials from issuing orders to stay home, despite mounting pressure from leaders in major areas such as Houston and Dallas. .
“You are having a record number of people with positive results, a record number of people hospitalized, even in intensive care units, as well as, unfortunately, too many deaths,” he said.
Abbott said he supported the Hidalgo County judge’s decision to enforce the curfews, but did not explicitly support the home shelter order when asked about it. Abbott’s office said early Tuesday that the order lacked legal authority and was more of a recommendation.
“There are parts of the orders that I have complete freedom to enforce, such as the curfew,” Abbott said. “That is the authority that local county judges have always included at this time, and I understand that Cameron and Hidalgo County intend to enforce curfews. That is one of the strategies to ensure that reduce the number of people. and about. “
Abbott, who spoke to officials and executives of hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley early Tuesday, said the state is working to partner with hotels to provide rooms to people who are recovering from Covid-19 but are still unable to go. home so they don’t. infect others.
The governor pleaded with the public to wear masks and take the virus seriously.
“It is essential that everyone, not just the leaders, but all the residents of the Rio Grande Valley understand: you need to wear a face mask or cover your face when leaving.”
South Texas needs more help, doctor says
Dr. Ivan Melenedez, the Hidalgo County Health Authority and a practicing physician, said the region needs all the help it can get.
“If I found a lamp on the beach and rubbed it and the genie came out, my first wish would be: President Trump, please send the USNS Mercy,” he said, referring to the Navy hospital ship that has been used to relieve the hospital. . stress during the pandemic. “Let’s park in the Gulf, which is 35 miles away. That gives us 1,000 beds with all the attached personnel.”
That would also help medical professionals who have been working 18 hours a day for weeks, finally have a break, he said. “Boy, that would be a gift from God.”
Melendez described hospitals in South Texas as a parallel universe: buildings that look peaceful from the outside but go through hell inside.
“If (people) knew what was hidden behind those walls as they drove down the highway,” he said. “If only they could have X-ray vision and see the pain and suffering.”
According to Meléndez, the reasons why the region is so affected are two. First, he noted the high rates of diabetes and obesity in the Rio Grande Valley. Combined with poverty and limited access to healthcare, those comorbidities make fighting coronavirus a great battle for many.
Meléndez also noted the proximity to Mexico.
“Their infrastructure is non-existent. You can’t even go to a hospital right now,” he said. “So if you put a dot and then draw a circle around where we live and it goes three hours each way, there are 14 million people, most of them living in Mexico.”
“They are human beings, we don’t care about their immigration status,” he added. “They come in, we have to take care of them.”
“There are a lot of stories across Texas and the southern United States between the Hispanic and Latino communities that just got hit, and we really aren’t getting a full explanation for this,” said Hotez.
Delayed reporting times of cases, deaths
In nearby Cameron County, which includes Brownsville, authorities say the death toll is much higher than reported.
At a press conference Monday, Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. said reports of positive cases and the number of deaths are lagging behind in the county. He said the reason is because the health department was overwhelmed by the number of cases and deaths that have increased in the past six weeks.
“We literally can’t keep up,” Treviño said. He said that hospitals are at 115% of Covid-19’s regular dedicated bed capacity, and that 91.7% of ICU’s dedicated Covid-19 beds are in use.
Dr. James Castillo, the public health authority for the county health department, said during the press conference that the number of deaths would be delayed in the reports by a month or more. The reporting system is manual, and said the staff is overwhelmed.
Statewide, Texas announced its highest number of hospitalizations as of Tuesday, with 10,848 people currently in hospitals, according to the latest data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
Vallejo, the critical care pulmonologist in McAllen, said he is dealing with frustration as he watches his colleagues work tirelessly in exposed settings, but he still hears reports of people ignoring patterns of social distance abroad.
“They’re going out and they’re having barbecues and they’re throwing parties and they’re having soccer practice or going to the beach here on South Padre Island,” Vallejo said. “It’s so hard to try to understand … Do they think their lives are worth more than the health workers who will eventually take care of them if they get sick? Because we will. No matter what. We will.”
CNN’s Stephanie Becker, Christina Maxouris, Jen Christensen and Nicole Chavez contributed to this report.
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