meIn the Imperial County of Southern California, the chuff-chuff of the rotating blades of helicopters has become a familiar noise.
It is the sound of patients with coronaviruses being transported by air: 15 to 17 per day, on average. This remote region along the U.S.-Mexico border has been under siege since Covid-19, and hospitals stretch to the brim.
Imperial County, with a population of 181,000, is experiencing the worst outbreak in California, according to various public health metrics.
In the past 14 days, the county’s infection rate was over 588 per 100,000 people, by far the highest in the state. As of Friday, the county had recorded 7,759 coronavirus cases and 132 deaths.
Adolphe Edward, CEO of El Centro Regional Medical Center, one of the county’s only two hospitals, recalls the medical operations he has overseen in Turkey, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. More than 500 patients have already been transported out of the county to other medical facilities, and cases continue to arrive.
“People ask, ‘What’s going on? There is a war? ‘”Edward said. “Yes there is. This is a war against Covid.
‘If there was a poster of a place where Covid thrives, this is it ‘
Imperial County, a rural stretch of extreme southeastern California, faces a unique set of challenges, including high poverty rates, air pollution, and a transitional workforce of farmworkers.
But in many ways it is also a microcosm of pandemic victims in communities of color across the state and nation.
Latinos in California are already disproportionately affected by the virus, accounting for 39% of the population, but 55% of coronavirus cases and 42% of deaths. But near the border, the trends are even more pronounced. Latinos in Imperial County represent 85% of the population and a surprising 95% of deaths.
The coronavirus has not only infected a disproportionately high number of residents, but Imperial County is also the poorest in the state. In 2018, 30% of its children lived in poverty, rising above state and national averages. It ranks last in a ranking of county health indicators, which include obesity rates, access to health care, and environmental pollution.
For years, children in Imperial County have suffered alarmingly high rates of childhood asthma, a factor that researchers believe could be related to pollution and the harmful particles expelled by the evaporating Salton Sea.
Luis Olmedo, executive director of the Civic Committee of the Valley, a nonprofit organization that has been monitoring air quality and pressuring the state to address it, said that, taken together, these factors make the county a Petri dish for the illness.
“We are in the midst of a pandemic, but we have been dealing with epidemics of cancer, asthma and diabetes for a long time. If there was a poster of a place where Covid thrives, this is the place, “said Olmedo.
Medical professionals treating patients in Imperial County say they are not surprised to see that coronavirus disproportionately affects a community that faces underlying risk factors for poverty and chronic disease.
“We see so many patients with diabetes, asthma, cancer, and obesity. This type of comorbidity compromises health, and by the time you meet Covid, this virus that wants to take you down becomes much more difficult to fight, “Edward said.
The doctor said the medical center saw his first case in early March, and by the first week in April, cases began to skyrocket. Since May, they have seen a steady flow of 50 to 60 Covid-19 positive patients per day. Medical staff have witnessed that at least 26 patients deteriorate rapidly and die within 10 to 15 minutes, Edward said. Patients who need higher levels of care have been transported as far as San Francisco, 600 miles to the north.
Equipment and PPE Scarcity is also a major problem, Edward said. El Centro Medical Center has requested 10 additional ventilators from the state to meet demand. “Each county holds on to all the assets they have in case they have a peak,” he said.
What is causing the outbreak?
Many in Imperial County have theories about what is behind the deadly increase. Edward believes residents could become infected while visiting nearby Arizona or San Diego, where bars and businesses have reopened.
Blanca Morales, executive director of the Calexico Wellness Center, a small community clinic, said the county’s proximity to Mexicali, a metropolitan area of more than a million on the Mexican side of the border that has been overwhelmed by its own war with Covid, also likely plays a role
“We see many patients with relatives in Mexicali,” he said. “They come here and visit the family, many of them live in multi-generational homes, and then we see more cases.”
While public health officials have not linked case numbers to outbreaks at specific locations, Luis Flores, a Calexico resident and activist with the Imperial Valley Equity and Justice Coalition, said many infections had occurred among farmworkers who cross the border legally every day to work. in the fields.
“People who cross each day are our essential workers, but there are a lot of risks. These are people who wait in line to cross the border, then get on a narrow bus without PPE and travel an hour to the field site, “Flores said.
Flores said he and his organization had asked county officials to enforce the safety guidelines for employers.
“We are hearing stories of bus drivers and field supervisors dying. There is an element of exploitation in this labor market that is also expressed in unsafe working conditions, ”said Flores.
The Imperial County Public Health Department confirmed that the county has seen cases among people who work in retail establishments, including Walmart, as well as between farm workers and people who are not currently employed, such as retirees, disabled residents, and children.
‘Toggle’ on reopening
The crisis in Imperial County has highlighted the challenges of reopening California, particularly in an affected region where people are desperate to return to work.
In late June, as the county was about to reopen more businesses, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered Imperial County to “change” its plans amid growing cases, a move that Flores and the Equity and Justice Coalition supported.
The county’s plans that allowed in-store retailing and indoor religious services were also overturned after the governor threatened to “intervene” if the county did not follow instructions.
The business community, However, it backed down, with the Imperial Valley Business Recovery Task Force calling Newsom’s announcement “a devastating turn of events for our businesses that have worked hard over the past few months to implement adequate safety precautions for a safe work environment.” .
Luis Plancarte, chairman of the Imperial County Board of Supervisors, said the need to reopen was especially strong for employees who found themselves out of work due to lockouts.
“The pressure came from dishwashers, servers, waiters in the restaurant industry. From retailers and hospitality workers. From people who did not have a job and have already spent their stimulus checks of $ 1,200 and said ‘we are running out of money and we have to do something,’ ”Plancarte said.
Unemployment in the county currently stands at nearly 30%, he added.
Meanwhile, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties has lobbied county supervisors to collect and publish additional information about infected people: data on gender, primary language, health insurance coverage, and whether they are “essential workers,” hoping to gather knowledge that can help the county defend itself.
“If we are going to take the fight against this pandemic seriously, we have to have as much information as possible,” said David Trujillo, director of defense for the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties.
“We want to make sure we meet the needs of the most vulnerable residents. If we do that, then we meet everyone’s needs. ”
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